April 23, 2006

CHI Notes 1

Hey Everybody! I made it to CHI in Montreal! I'm relatively tired, but am feeling good. I'll do a catch-up post later, but for now I'll just be adding links too cool stuff I see. Let's get it on:

Retrievr - This is awesome! Draw a picture and it will find photos that resemble what you've drawn.

The Memory Project - Supporting and enhancing memory with the help of technology

April 21, 2006

Happy 24th Puneet!

Happy Bday, buddy.

This is for you! (but everyone should look ;-)

April 19, 2006

When it rains

As they say, "When it rains, it pours."

Today has been a stellar day. I'm tired, but it's an extremely good tired, and things are starting to look up.

First, a question: Who on earth has the brilliant foresight to put half neked pictures of himself on his blog only a few days before a big, important job interview? Me, of course. Great idea that was...anyway, I don't think it caused too much trouble, likely because the people at the company are cool.

Speaking of which, I had my interviews today with ThoughtWorks, which was actually kind of fun. I'm pretty comfortable in interview situations, I have found, and have a somewhat "take it or leave it" approach. If the people like me, then that's great, but if they don't, I probably wouldn't enjoy working there anyway, so I just go ahead and act like myself. The people I spoke with were brilliant and fun, and I think I'm pretty well suited to the type of work I'd do there. So yeah, I'll let you know when I get more info...who knows...there may be other job situations on the horizon as well. ;-)

I came home tonight from Chicago to a quite full inbox, filled mostly with great news. First, this program I've been working on for my User Interface Design class is coming along swimmingly. My teammate uploaded the latest version, so I downloaded and tested it...AND IT LOOKS AMAZING! I am so impressed. We should pat ourselves on the back. I still have some more work to do on it from my end of the bargain, but it's looking good thus far.

In another email, I found out that I've been bumped to "Active Duty" with regarts to my CHI 2006 Student Volunteer status. That means I don't have to pay $450 to get in to the conference. Perfect timing...I was really banking on this, and got lucky. I'm really pumped.

Tomorrow is THE day. Big deal day. It ain't over 'til the fat lady... day. It's capstone presentation day. I'm ready. So ready. Ready to rock, ready to roll. In the morning I'll go for a run, then finish up my capstone website, then do a practice run through. My presentation is from 4:30-5 in Informatics 107, if you're in the area. Hopefully we'll get it on video, so I can spread my words across the internets.

Anyway, this long long day must come to an end. I'm off to bed. Big smiles all 'round.

April 17, 2006

Game Time

As I drove in to school today, I thought about the fact that this is a quite important week for me. Of course, with perfect timing, one of my all-time favorite songs began to play. I think the deep-down message symbolizes my week quite well:

So you wanna be a rock 'n roll star, well listen now to what I say:
Just get an electric guitar, take some time, and learn how to play...

If it were only so easy...

Have a listen:

Sampling Richie's Sweetness

Richie rocks my socks. Here's the proof:

April 16, 2006

Mr. and Mrs. Spaulding

Mr. and Mrs. Spaulding
Originally uploaded by hevnin.

A hearty congrats to Carolyn & Ralph. They were married last weekend in CA. I wish I could have been there...Carolyn's watched me (& my sister & all the other CH kids) grow up, and has been like a second mom. I wish you two all the happiness in the world!

(Thanks to my mom for the picture!)

I Heart Bluetooth

Bluetooth is rocking my socks right now. I love the fact that it takes no time at all for me to pass files between my PowerBook and the iMac at school...it's so convenient.

That's all. Carry on with your Easter Sunday.

More You Don't Know Josh

109-0947_IMG
Originally uploaded by Square714.

Ahh, college...

The Josh You Never Knew

107-0766_IMG
Originally uploaded by Square714.

Yup, that's me alright. Or at least was me...

Oodles of Matzo

I've held out for too many days of passover without getting Matzo, so on the way home tonight I stopped by Kroger to pick some up. It turns out they only sell matzo in sets of 5 boxes. In each box there are roughly 10-12 big giant crackers. Now, I don't think my entire family goes through 5 boxes of Matzo during Passover, so how in the heck am I gonna get even close to finishing? I have about 50 pieces of matzo here, and am considering handing them out as give-aways at my capstone presentation on Thursday. Long story short, if you want some Matzo, let me know...you can have all you can eat...

April 06, 2006

A Very Happy Birthday Indeed

IMG_6420.JPG
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

Yesterday was an awesome day, another fantastic birthday. 24 feels good, same as 23 for the most part.

Last night, after a 9pm to 10pm phone interview, I headed out to Yogi's to meet up with a group of friends. I haven't been out in a long long time, and that made last night feel really really good. Just a relaxing, kick-back conversation session over beer, well drinks, and Long Island Iced Tea. Perfect ending to a great day.

If you click on the image above, you'll be able to see the details about some of the things I received for my bday. Thanks to all those who sent gifts from all over the country. :-)

Thanks also to all of you who left bithday songs on my voicemail. It was a busy morning and afternoon, and if I didn't call you back yesterday, I'll definitely find time to do it over the weekend. Hearing the birthday song over and over is one of my favorite parts of the birthday celebration. You all made my day.

Thanks y'all, much love.

April 04, 2006

It's almost April 5

And you know what that means!!!

At 1:02 a.m and 3 seconds, tomorrow, on April 5, 2006, it will be: "01:02:03 04-05-06"

Scientists say that's once in a lifetime!

I've received that email about a million times now...

What else is on April 5th...hmm?

March 31, 2006

Six Fifteen

Went for the Friday morning run. Was feeling good, though running a little late. Warmed up. Decided to go at race pace. Wanted to see where I was at, how my body is adapting to regular exercise. One mile. 6 laps. Ready. Set. Go.

Lap 1: 50 seconds
Laps 2-5: 55-65 seconds
Lap 6: 60 seconds

Total time: 6:15

"Holy crap!" That was unexpected. I've written here before about my goal of running a sub-6 minute mile. I hadn't been able to get there since high school, and thought my body still might be up to it. Now I know my body is up to the task. I'm a mere 16 seconds away.

The run felt good today, too. I feel like I've been suffering a lot on my runs lately. Lots of little aches and pains. For me it's the minor aches that hurt most. It seems that a tiny little tingle in my shin leads to me thinking that my whole leg will be in pain soon. Generally I'm right about these things, but I wonder how much of the pain is psychological. If I expect pain, then maybe my body is simply trying to match the expectation...

Anyway...I'll continue my diligence, keep hitting the track, and will soon get that goal. 5:59, here I come. :-)

March 29, 2006

Sallymander surprise

Happy early birthday to me!

I stopped by the Informatics building this morning to check my mail (My office is in a building on the other side of campus) and to my surprise I found a BIG GIANT BOX! I popped it open and found birthday presents! Wahoo!

Until this point it didn't really sink in that my birthday is approaching. April 5, for those who aren't sure. I haven't done an updated wishlist, but there's always stuff on my Amazon wish list, if you're inclined to get me a gift...

Anyway, back to the Wahoo! Sally (Suzanna) sent a sandwich maker, which I will do oh so much with! Also she sent me the The Fray album, How to Save a Life. (Which, to my surprise, actually has nothing to do with machine-based implementations of living systems.) I'm listening to it now, and it sounds great! Thanks Suzanna! (Oh, and was Putnam part of this too?)

Unintentionally designing for cheesiness

I listenened to a podcast this morning that was called "7 Steps to Successful User Interface Design." It was created by and for a company called Classic System Solutions and played out like a really bad infomercial. I was just ready for the main speaker to scream out, "Just Set It!" then allowed the over-enthusiastic audience to respond, "AND FORGET IT!" Blech.

You should read this review because it says exactly what I wanted to express about the podcast. Alternatively, you can listen to the podcast and judge for yourself.

March 28, 2006

Do it right, then do it again

I've been thinking a lot lately about the concept of iteration, and the role it plays in design. We, as humans, are smart. Our biggest flaw, though, is that we know and understand that we are brilliant, and think that no one before us has ever been smarter than we are. In fact, we think we're so smart that most of us look back at our younger selves and are embarrassed about the idiot acts that we once carried out.

When designing, this sense brilliance can either be a very dangerous or very rewarding thing. It is important to realize that there are so many things going on at once in any given situation that there is no way that one could understand everything that is going on. Therefore every design must have flaws, since we are not able to take all of the details into account. This is where iteration comes into play.

At the outset of a design (or any other kind of) project, a team sets out with a set of assumptions about the domain, which lends itself to a certain set of questions. These questions are then tested through primary research, which leads to insights, which hopefully leads to one or many designs. It is at this point that the naive designer thinks that he is finished. In fact, once there is a design, the "real" work is ready to begin, at least in my opinion. It is at this point that one should reassess the initial questions that were asked, and a whole new set of questions can be considered, as well:

• Do the people who will use the design think it will help them?
• Does the design actually help these people?
• How could the design be changed to better support the user(s)?

Ideally, at this point the project can begin anew. I have been so surprised at my output when I have the ability to look at an old project with fresh eyes. I see the fatal flaws almost immediately. This is why iteration is so important. Sometimes it simply takes a little time and perspective before we can see the errors in the things we make.

Humans should take advantage of the fact that we become smarter each day, and have the ability to see details that yesterday were simply invisible. Locking ideas into the here and now, and not giving our "future selves" a chance to comment on and improve a project is downright ignorant. I'm calling for a change in the way we think about the work we do. There's no reason that iteration couldn't be applied to the work most people do. Who's with me?

How could iteration change your work habits and results? (even if you aren't a designer...) I suspect they'd completely change your work...what do you think?

March 27, 2006

Avoglemono!

Yesterday for the Sunday Evening Dinner Series I prepared a pot of Avoglemono. I used the recipe that was raved about in this Epicurious comment thread.

In case you aren't in the know, Avoglemono is a Greek egg-lemon soup. You should try it next time you're at a nice Greek restaurant. It's a little strange at first, but I love it!

The other soups du soir included Matt's Potato Soup (the inspiration for the soup night in the first place), as well as Kynthia's vegetable soup and chicken noodle soup. Soup night was an awesome idea. I can eat soup for days and days...

March 26, 2006

Freshman Year

Ah, to be a college freshman again. I feel like my memories of freshman year are starting to fade. I really don't want that to happen. That year was certainly a crazy one. I probably learned more about life in general in that 9 month period than I have in any other time of my life. Below, an ode to freshman year:

Lots of experimentation. Lots of change. Little sleep. Lots of fun.

Dorm food. Meal points. Drinking beer. Realizing beer is kind of gross.

Walking to class. Not going to class. Homework. Hard as fuck classes (Revelle gives no gifts). Learning that school isn't always about classes.

Ethnicities. Racism. NorCal. SoCal.

Calculus. Hum. Computer Science. Linguistics. Cognitive Science.

Secret crush. Public crush. Tell all letters. Roots of love.

New friends. Frat people. Jew Crew. Suite 350. Lifelong bonds.

Getting lost on the bus (day 1). Video Documentaries. The Cliffs. Roommates with opposite sleeping schedules?

Experimentation. Brown hair. Drunk Passover. Tijuana. Et Cetera.

...that was fun. Sappy, but fun.

I Declare War

On my room allergies. Last night I took a stand. I went to Bed, Bath, & Beyond and bought $90 worth of supplies. A new blanket for my bed, allergy reducing pillow covers, and Antimite. The scariest thing I bought is definitely the Antimite. It claims that it will kill the little bugs that live in your bed and carpet, allowing you to vaccuum them and their excrement away. Ewww!

Hopefully this will all work. I'm tired of waking up with a stuffed nose, headache, and baggy eyes. I'll keep you updated.

March 25, 2006

Flickr & Google APIs

Yesterday I figured out how to connect to Flickr and Google through their Java APIs. That was fun. I had been interested in doing this for a while, and now the opportunity came up in a Java class I'm taking. We'll be developing a little tool that I'll probably be talking more about in the coming weeks.

Google's API is surprisingly easy to use. It took me about an hour to really understand the details...which is a good amount of time to have spent on something like that. Flickr's API, meanwhile, is a little harder to grasp. This is because there's so much you can do with it. The true Java wrapper for Flickr, flickrj, proved to be a little over my head for the moment, so I connected directly using Java's URL class and Flickr's REST protocol. Man, is that easy to do. I like the idea of connecting to a source via REST, and when I find the time I'll surely build some things to become more comfortable with it. I'll probably stick with PHP, though, since I find it a lot easier to deal with than Java, and it's really quick and easy to get stuff up and running on the web.

Anyway, enough technogeekery. Back to work...

March 23, 2006

Write and write and write

The best advice for any blogger:

Just keep doing it.

Write and write and write and write and write. Just keep going. In a few years you will be so glad you did. This is what I'm banking on, and is the reason I blog. At this point I'm going on blind faith, but I believe it.

Write and write and write. If you want to start, do it now. Just start, and never stop...that's my inspirational thought of the moment.

March 22, 2006

Amazon S3

Hey, this is an interesting idea. Amazon has started a service called S3 that can be used for web storage. In case the idea of web storage is perplexing to you, it's actually pretty simple. Your personal computer stores files on its hard drive. Web services like Gmail or Flickr store your mail or photos, respectively, on their hard drive. Web storage is a way of saving your files not on your own computer, but on someone else's. Then you can access your data from anywhere that you can get an internet connection, rather than just on your computer.

The interesting thing about S3, though, is that they have not designed an interface for the service. Instead, they've released their API so that other people can build their own interfaces for the system. The storage space is pretty cheap (15 cents per gigabyte of storage and 20 cents per gigabyte of transfer), and Amazon is a pretty trustworthy company. I'm excited to see if this approach will work, and wonder what creative implementation ideas people have for this. I guess I'll have to wait and see, but it seems pretty exciting at this point.

March 21, 2006

blog my read

I'm still really surprised when people tell me they read my blog. It happens somewhat regularly in conversation. I'll just be talking to someone and they'll drop in the fact that they've been reading this site. It catches me off guard every time, and I stop and wonder how I should react. Generally I just say something like, "Awesome!" or "Cool, thanks!" But I never really talk with them about anything in particular, in fact I normally move on to some other subject.

I'm still not comfortable with this medium. There are tons of things I'd like to talk about here, but can't seem to find a way to do it. I would love to talk about job prospects, school prospects, personal life, random thoughts, etc., but these things are all so disconnected. How do I balance all of the thoughts that I want to get down with the fact that I'd prefer a somewhat normal theme to my writing?

The format to this blog will change soon...I can feel it. Just when you (and I for that matter) least expect it. Anyway, to all you readers out there, please keep reading. I appreciate it. And I die for comments, in person and in digital form. So keep that up. Ok, enough kissing your ass...how great am I?

updates are a comin

I swear. I just have to let them congeal a little bit and form a cohesive whole. SB06 rocked. More to come soon.

March 13, 2006

Google Mars

First there was Google Maps. Then there was Google Earth. Eventually we got Google Moon. Finally, we have Google Mars. (It's about time.)

March 12, 2006

Jump!

Go!

Musical Jackpot

So Puneet told me about this a while ago, but I've stumbled back upon archive.org's Live Music Archive. It is quite awesome, and I'm currently listening to a Toad the Wet Sprocket that I was at, but showed up late to...

Check it out, perhaps your favorite bands are there. Oh, and in case it's not clear, the files are in shn (Shorten) format, so just Google "convert shn wav" to figure out how to play them. It's not as complicated as one might think.

March 11, 2006

Arms Race

Arms
Originally uploaded by Square714.

Alternate title: "Photograph: Funny Human Being (Circa 2006 AD)"

Oh Puneet, I love it when you break out the engineering diagrams when discussing everyday events. Why yes, it seems that your right is longer than your left. Way to make lemonade from the lemons.

On that note, I could really go for some lemonade right now. I was up this morning at 3am in order to catch a bus, in order to catch a plane, in order to catch another bus, in order to get to Karen's place in Chi-town. I'm here now, but over-tired and under-slept (despite a glorious 3 hour nap this afternoon). Either way, lemonade would do me some good.

March 10, 2006

Techmology Frenzy

I keep bumping into new technologies thingies today. It seems like web 2.0 is really pumping out some new ideas lately...

Thumbstacks: Online presentation creation and playback. Cool idea (one that I've had for my capstone for a while), but I think the execution is a little weak so far. I have a feeling they're gonna put some sort of lame Web 2.0 skin on it to try to fix the UI...but it's a kind of broken UI at this point. (Thanks for the link, Kynthia)

Skobee: Make plans with people and related stuff. Sort of like Evite, but prettier. I'd like to try this with some of my IU friends...anybody up for it?

Zoho Creator: This is a little tool that helps people program little web widgets without needing to know how to program. Seems like a cool idea.

That's enough for now...

It is time we set fonts free

Here is a great article and comment thread on the topic of browser fonts. I agree that we as designers should be outraged that there are such huge limits in type choice on the web. Choice of font does matter, and it is important to give designers the freedom to make web content as easy to read as possible.

Anyway, give it a read...and don't call me a Type Geek ;-)

March 08, 2006

DC is back

Today was the first Design Club meeting in a long long time. It returns relatively unscathed, perhaps in a new format, and with a brand new name. It is now happily dubbed "Design Club!", though without the quotation marks and with the exclamation point.

The first thing I want to say about this topic is that the club is in good hands. A major goal for many of the initial DC members was that the club help to foster a spirit of design throughout the HCI/d program, and that this feeling lasted throughout the generations of graduates in the program. I hope the excitement that I felt today continues for the rest of the semester, and that that excitement leads to a continued spirit in the fall, so the new new students can learn what DC is all about.

I'd like to encourage everybody in the program to give Design Club! a(nother?) shot. It's fun, limitless, and you get a chance to employ your mad design skills. It's a win win.

Hoopty.

Dammit Gmail

I'm suddenly reminded of the earlier beta days when Gmail would go down all the time... I just tried to log in and it won't let me. Dammit Gmail! Perhaps they're installing some sort of super awesome tool that's gonna re-revolutionize email, though that's doubtful. Anybody else having an issue?

[Update: As of 8:03 pm, gmail is back. :-)]

March 05, 2006

On Bidding Adieu

I didn't mean to say that I won't blog until I'm done testing ma.gnolia. Come on, don't mince my words... ;-)

Social Bookmarking

So, for the last week or so I've been playing with del.icio.us, the phenomenal social bookmarking site that is hugely popular. I now see why it is so. It is tremendously easy to use, though it is a bit bland, and seems to get the job done without being All Up in My Grill^TM. For these reasons and more,

I'm switching to another service.

Yup, you read it right. I really like del.icio.us, and still I'm switching. Well why the heck would I be so possessed to do that? Ok, I'll be honest, I'm not just gonna jump off the del.icio.us boat. It's just that I want to try out ma.gnolia.com, aka Magnolia, and I can't manage both my del.icio.us and ma.gnolia bookmarks at the same time. Call it an internal beta test. Call it crazy. Call it whatever you like.

I have a hunch that in the coming days and years, the web will be less about functionality and more about the communities that use the site. Magnolia has pleasing aesthetic qualities (though it is All Up in My Grill^TM), and seems to be pointed at a slightly different audience than Delicious. Perhaps I'm part of this different audience, one that appreciates nice aesthetics. Or perhaps I'll end up missing Delicious's bland interface. In the coming weeks we'll see where my allegiances lie. Until then, I bid you adieu.

February 28, 2006

Selfish Josh Wants You to Blog More Often

I'm sitting here in the office, switching back and forth between Bloglines and PlanetInfo, just waiting for more of my friends to give me something to read. So, y'all, I ask you to hop to it. I don't mean to be selfish, but I need a reason to procrastinate and reading your blogs is the best one I can think of. :-)

February 27, 2006

Jazz In July Part Deux

Here's a more polished version...I think it's what I'll turn in. Let me know what you think! There's always room for improvement. :-)

February 25, 2006

Long long night

It's been a long long evening. I've been in the library working on a project for my graphic design class. It's a little flash movie/advertisement. I need feedback so I can do well on this! Check it out and let me know what you think. To be honest, I'm not super proud of my work...but I know that this is just a draft. Hopefully by tuesday it will be looking much better. (BTW, you should turn up your volume.)

Ok, now that it's 11pm, i gotta go get some dinner. Then to the airport, to pick Erik up. Like I said...long long night. ;-)

Interviewing the pros

So, as many of you know, right now I'm working on my master's degree Capstone Project and have been going at full tilt lately. My project is based around the idea that the way people give oral presentations today (utilizing PowerPoint and other "Slideware") might not be optimal, and it might even hinder the learning and information transfer process. That is, PowerPoint sucks the living soul out of presentations.

It turns out that there hasn't been much in the way of academic literature in this domain. Of course, there have been plenty of opinion articles, and there is a wealth of research in Education & Learning Theory, but research that aims to explain what is going wrong in many PPT presentations just doesn't exist. (Somebody please correct me if you think this judgement is in error.) This dearth of research exists mainly in academia, however, and many people have taken this subject up in less research-based areas. A number of authors have thought long and hard about presentations. It is my goal to personally interview many of these authors, so that my designs can be informed by their masterful insight.

Yesterday I interviewed Cliff Atkinson, author of Beyond Bullet Points. He had some amazing insights that helped to cement a lot of the ideas that have been floating around in my head. I was a little nervous before the interview began, but it worked out amazingly well. Turns out authors who sell a ton of books can be nice guys as well. :-)

I've also been in contact with Andy Goodman (author of Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes), who has also given me amazing feedback. This man is brilliant, and has a passion for helping those in the public and not-for-profit sector give stellar presentations so that their causes will succeed. Now if that's not inspiring work, I don't know what is.

Soon I look forward to conducting interviews with a number of other authors on the subject of presentations, but I don't want to jinx it just yet. I'll let you know when I hear back from the rest. :-)

Beautification update

Again, I altered some CSS (the file that defines how this page should look in your browser window) somewhat randomly. I'm getting really really tired of the layout, typography, and amount of decoration present on my blog. When I get some real time I'll make it better.

If you can figure out what I changed, let me know...otherwise just give a guess. ;-)

February 21, 2006

Blog Drought

Wow, quite a drought I've had on the ol' blog lately. I got some flack from Karen this evening about it, so you can all blame her for this. The truth is, I'm tired...quite tired...and needing to vent, so maybe I should do that.

Why am I so tired? School is why. Job searching is why. Volunteering to be on a "how to conduct a job search" panel is why. Staying up past my bedtime doing things like blogging is why. My job is why.

I just realized that some of you might have read the title to this entry and pronounced it Blog Droft. If you did that, please leave a comment. It would cheer me up oh so much. Man, that would be great.

I need new music. I need new weather. I need new shoes. Oh, I really need the new shoes. My running shoes are getting close to their limits, and I think it's my knees that are taking the biggest beating. I'm sure my raggedy old everyday shoes aren't helping either. Perhaps I'll go shoe shopping this weekend. I'm due.

Don't be fooled...I've got good stuff to talk about too, but perhaps I'll do that in the morning. That's not a promise, though. (If you pronounced that last word thof, please leave a comment. Again, it'll give me a good laugh.)

February 16, 2006

I O U

I owe y'all a good post...haven't done one in a while. As for now, however, I'm not feeling too well so I should get some sleep.

I don't wanna be sick. I don't wanna be sick. I don't want to be sick.

Here are some things I might comment on:

• Work, aka school
• Free cell phone + service
• Jobstuff
• Java Programming
• Teaching
• Presentations
• Speaking with people who have written books
• Random randoms (the original title of my blog)

We'll see how it turns out...

February 13, 2006

Google Chat, gone

googleChatInBrowser
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

Hey, what happened to my browser-based Google Chat? For a while there I was able to chat in Gmail, but now I can't anymore. Hey Google, what up with that?

Update: Thanks to Tif, who gets the tech support of the day award. She correctly diagnosed and solved the problem! All you gotta do is change the beginning of the url from "https" to "http". Now I have to choose between security and the ability to chat... Thanks for the help, everyone (especially Tif)!

Coldest. Run. Ever.

3.2 Miles of freezing ears.

That run surely doesn't seem like it should be very difficult. It's pretty much perfectly flat, that's city running for you. Still, it was mighty painful. Only now, 20 minutes after the fact am I beginning to regain sensations in my ears.

It was 17 degrees when I left. It's 19 now. So yeah, it got warmer during the run...but that's no consolation. That's a PR* of sorts...Coldest Run Ever.

*PR = Personal Record

February 08, 2006

Philosophy vs. Humans

Josh's Design Philosophy Rule #356323: When a design philosophy (yours or another's) stands counter to what would help a system work better for people, side with the people.

I had a brief discussion with an unnamed colleague last night about making Wikis a little more usable. "Why can't they just implement a WYSIWYG Editor for editing pages?" I asked. My colleague said that it has something to do with the "Wiki Philosophy" of putting the focus on content over other things.

Well IMO, philosophies are all well and good, but when people have to learn and relearn how to input clearly formatted information on each Wiki they visit, then the Wikis are doomed for failure. If each site made it really easy for people to add content, there will be more content! How can that be bad?

Now, an easy response is that more content does not mean better content. That's true. But if we're trying to build democratic communities, then everybody should have opportunity to be heard, not just the people who speak the wiki language.

If Wikis were easier to use, perhaps they would not have to so overtly ask for money, since more people would be contributing, in the form of content and dollars.

Finally, why the heck did they call it a Wiki? How un-user-centered is that? What the heck does it mean? Ugh...

Don't get me wrong, Wikis are good for a number of reasons, but they're problematic for many reasons as well.

Feeling the Fartlek

Went for a Fartlek run today. Sometimes it feels really good to mix things up, as it did today. The run went fast...and now I can get to work...

February 06, 2006

The WOW Experience

Josh's Design Philosophy Rule #453251: Great new software or software features do not necessarily make anyone say "WOW!"

Rather, the great new software would do well if the user didn't even notice she was using new software at all. This is a lesson I learned a long time ago, but the ideas behind this are coming back to me constantly during my Typography class. The best typography simply lets you view the words. Many people who make typefaces are artists, but the best ones do not let their egos adorn letters with silly additions that simply aren't needed. Look at the letters you read every once in a while, you'll see amazing things in them. You take tons of emotional value from the typeface, but generally you don't (and should not) notice. The same should be true of software.

Yesterday I was invited to be a beta tester for a new Web Calendar service called 30 Boxes. People are saying that it will revolutionize the calendar in the same way that Gmail revolutionized Email, or Flickr revolutionized photos on the web. At first blush, there was nothing that made me say, "WOW!!" It looks like a pretty standard web calendar with some AJAX mixed in to make it a little more responsive. After some thought, though, it seems pretty slick. It let me easily add entries to the calendar (though recurrence could use some work), and was easy enough to navigate. Add to this a simple, utilitarian interface and I'd say I'm a pretty happy user. This thing knows how to get out of the way and let me interact with the things I should be doing.

Good job so far, I say, especially since it was the first day of their beta launch.

February 03, 2006

On Toilet Paper

Another really quick entry...I couldn't agree with this more.

February 02, 2006

Ughhhh

That is all. Just ughhhh. Many reasons. Don't even want to begin on that road. Just ughhhh.

February 01, 2006

Changes to the page

I made some changes to the look of my blog tonight. They're all pretty minor. Do you notice any?

Oh Richie

"I am like putting pants on a triangle."

Richie, on having no butt.

Speaking the Truth

A great life lesson I learned from one of my past professors was that sometimes you don't know what you really think about a subject until you write it. I find this is also true of speaking. For me, it seems that it is only at the point which I have expressed the thought that it actually becomes part of my belief structure. Sometimes I haven't thought about something at all before it etches its place in the place where I store my beliefs.

Sometimes this point is hard for me to understand. Every once in a while I'll utter something that I have known to be true for a good amount of time, but it only sinks in after I say something to someone about it.

I've come to believe that the power of expression is tantamount to any other human ability. It is the fact that we can express our thoughts out loud, on surfaces, and in digital form that has caused our "domination" over other species, and not only because it helps others to understand us, but because it causes us to know ourselves.

I said something yesterday that I hadn't really understood before, and after that I knew it to be truer than ever.

January 28, 2006

Thoughts on Originality

This essay made some interesting points, which very well suits my interesting mood.

He kicked him

I don't know why I find this so funny...it's just too cute.

Running Pains, Welcome Back

Many of my friends know that in a past life (aka High School in this entry) I was a rather serious runner. For four years I ran loops around the track at my high school nearly every day of the school year. I was relatively accomplished: a 2 year captain of the 200 person team, 2nd place in my league in the 400 meter sprint senior year, blah blah blah. I was relatively fast, and I think it was my work ethic that propelled me past others, not necessarily my god-given talent. But that's for another entry altogether.

Yesterday I ran the mile at race pace for the first time in years. It was painful. My plan for running races is generally as follows:

1. Line up, wait for start
2. Run at a really fast pace, nearly as fast as possible
3. Slowly die out, realizing that I have nothing else to give at the end.

This method ensures that I always give full effort, and has worked for me in many cases. Yesterday, however, it hurt really bad. After doing a quick warm-down lap where I thought I could collapse at any moment, I went to the sideline and laid down. My head was spinning and I could do nothing but lay with my eyes closed.

I did this exact same thing after nearly every race in high school. It hurts really bad, but something about it feels so good. Leaving everything you've got on the track is a painful reward. I realized that I missed this feeling. It has been 6 years or so since I've felt it. I welcome it back, though, and am excited about the pain that my 6 minute mile will eventually bring.

January 27, 2006

Boooored by my website

So I've been ruminating about my website a lot lately. Most often these ruminations take place in my head, but I'm starting to move them out in to the world through conversations and sketches and thoughts in between. To be frank, I've grown bored of the design of my site. It's not that there's anything wrong with it in particular, it's just that I've looked at it so much that it has become boring to me.

I'm not sure what I intend to do about that. I don't really have the time to code a new site from scratch. I suppose I could just play with my stylesheets and change the look-and-feel to something new-ish, but I want to do so much more. Here are a list of things I'd like to do, in no particular order:

• Improve the visual layout, typography, and overall design of the site
• Make it easy for myself and others to add content (possibly via a wiki, but at least via some sort of commenting
• Convert my blog from MoveableType to WordPress - This is for a number of reasons, but mainly because I've been bothered by a lot of things in Moveable Type: lots of errors have popped up, and the Open-Sourceness of Wordpress is quite inviting
• Make my blog more visible from my webpage - Right now my blog is simply a menu item...I would like it to stand out more, that might make my site more dynamic
• Give more visibility to all the other sites on my domain that I frequent: My Calendar, My Capstone Wiki, jMinder, etc.

If you can think of anything else I might do to josh.ev9.org, or have any critique of the current one, please let me know.

January 25, 2006

Room Allergies

I think I might be allergic to my room. Is that possible? Any time I wake up early in the morning and do a little work on my computer, I end up with an allergic reaction. I thought my allergies would go away in winter. Dignambamit.

January 20, 2006

Courting

"I'm not here to change you, graphically."

-Me to Karen, on me designing a poster for her that just wasn't quite right

January 17, 2006

Million Dollar Homepage

Erik told me about this a while ago, but in case you missed it, check out the Million Dollar Homepage. Brilliant idea, and a quick way to make a million bucks! This kid can now go to any school he can afford...

Repeated Announcement

I think I (and others) have made this announcement before...but it has come to my attention that the message may not have come across clearly.

The Planet Informatics site is open to everyone in the School of Informatics, and we encourage you to join us by allowing your blog posts to show up there. Contact Erik to have him set you up. Join in the fun! (it's really fun ;-)

January 16, 2006

I must accept the geek that I am

Geek Test Results
You are 67.5% geeky.

Not bad. Maybe you spend a little too much time with your computer, but at least you have friends. You do have friends, right?

The current average score is: 32.66%

Fact: 17.45% of people who took this test claim to have attempted to build a robot.

Take the test

January 14, 2006

Definitely

This post is directed at no one in particular, but should be understood by all.

Def·i·nite·ly

There is a finite way to spell definite, remember that. We can get through this together, I'm here to help ;-)

January 13, 2006

Sub 6er

So today I took the shackles* off and ran on the indoor track again. It felt pretty good, though I feel like I may be coming down with some sort of sickness in my chest. I did a mile warmup, then decided to do some semi-timed mile runs. Two of them to be exact. They were only semi-timed because I wasn't wearing a watch and the clock in the gym is a little off (plus the fact that I can't tell time on an analog watch face ;-). Either way, I think the times were relatively accurate. The first mile was quick, done in 7:15, and the second was a bit tiring, up to 8:05. I feel good now though, and definitely not too tired to get some work done.

Now I want to set some goals for myself. I've been so wishy-washy with the idea of doing a triathalon...and I still haven't found one that I really really want to do, so I'll do a short-term goal just for the moment. I'd like to run a mile in 6:00 flat. That's the goal. Perhaps I can go even faster. I think my PR (Personal Record) for the mile was senior year in high school, I believe the time was 4:59. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to get back to that time...but for now I'll just try to be a 6er, and then a sub 6er. Wish me luck!

*Shackles refers to the constraints that a treadmill is bound to have. On a treadmill I'm not actually running but being pulled by a machine at an ever so constant pace. When I run on a track, it is much easier to go at whatever pace I feel like going, sometimes faster than would be possible on a treadmill.

January 12, 2006

Mmmhmmm

Yup, that is most definitely the sun!

January 10, 2006

Graphic Design Homework

*FRUSTRATION*

So every single time I sit down to do some sketches for a Graphic Design I realize like halfway through that I missed the itty bitty little detail that was meant to trick me in the assignment. WTF? Maybe the teachers are trying to tell me to pay attention...so perhaps I'll eventually learn, but why the heck would one use only one font size when making a poster with a lot of information? How the heck am I supposed to show a hierarchy?

Turns out the assignment is all about hierarchy...so apparently there is a way. Back to the drawling boards.

January 09, 2006

CES 2006

IMG_6124.JPG
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

I got back this evening from CES 2006. CES stands for the Consumer Electronics Show. It's in Las Vegas every year. This is the fourth year in a row that I have been to the show.

I went with the fools you see in the picture, plus Vince, who isn't in that shot. CES is plenty fun, but we generally only spend a little time at it...for most of the time in Vegas we gorge ourselves on buffets and cheap food. This year was no exception. Good times were had by all.

I look forward to the 5th anniversary next year!

Matt y Josh

IMG_1004
Originally uploaded by lime124.

Good times at Tif's 25th.

From waaaay back

IMG_0754
Originally uploaded by Square714.

True to Puneet form (don't ask me why), suddenly some of Puneet's old old pictures are up on Flickr. This one right here is from UCSD's Sungod Festival in 2004. Sungod is a yearly event in which nearly all of the students at UCSD get "fucking wasted" and have fun. There are bands and booths and other festivities, and it is always a good time. For the rest of the year, nobody at UCSD drinks or has fun...that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it's certainly not far from the truth.

After this particular Sungod festival, I had the honor of getting pulled over. Luckily I hadn't had anything to drink for a number of hours before the end of the festival, so I wasn't at all intoxicated. Lucky!

Many a good time was had at Sungod...

December 29, 2005

Winter Break 05

Ok, sorry. That's all I'm going to say. Just sorry. I've got a case of the lazies. There's something about being at home that just pulls the blogging spirit right off of my "to have" list. I have been thinking about blogging a lot, just haven't had the willpower to do it.

I've been quite busy, If I do say so myself. I've got on my new burgundy trousers, fresh from the initial warsh. I like them, but I have no idea what to wear with them. Pictures will surely come later.

I've seen a lot of people since I have been home including (in the order that I saw them) Dana, Rachel (& Brent), Lauren, Sarthak, Suzanna, Darren, & Anna. Not to mention family and family friends. It's been a good vacation for seeing people, and hopefully I'll get to see more (especially when I go to Vegas for CES in a week or so). I'm a little sad I wasn't able to make it down to San Diego for the break, but 2 weeks is an amazingly short amount of time when you get down to it.

My cell phone broke a few nights ago. I was expecting it to happen soon, and it finally cracked in half. I must say, Verizon was awesome about replacing it. They helped me through the process, charged me as little as they could, and got me a phone by the next morning. All that and I didn't even have the insurance. :-)

My mom got me Arrested Development Season 2 for the Festival of Lights (Hanukkah, or Chanukkah, or Hanukah, or Channukka, or FoL). I've been devouring episodes at a frenzied pace. 7 in the past 15 hours. I guess I could be going faster, but I'm mixing in internet job searches for breaks.

Oh, and reading. I've been devouring book pages as well. At the beginning of the break I knocked out Guy Kawasaki's Art of the Start, which is all about being an entrepreneur and starting your own business...be it a technology company or non-profit. I thought the book was enjoyable. We are being "forced" to read it by Marty for the capstone class...I think all the books for that class have been good. It is surely more about starting a for-profit company than a not-for-profit one, but still, there are numerous helpful tidbits about starting -and continuing- any major project. It was an easy enough read.

Right now I'm in the middle of Yann Martin's Life of Pi. Sometimes it's hard for me to get into books that aren't based on reality, but this one has been easy. I highly recommend it. It's a bit of a thinker, but a fun story as well. You'll never think about zoos or the animals in them in the same way. I'll leave you with one of my favorite passages, the entirety of chapter 56:

I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unerring ease. It begins in your mind, always. One moment you are feeling calm, self-possessed, happy. Then fear, disguised in the garb of mild-mannered doubt, slips into your mind like a spy. Doubt meets disbelief and disbelief tries to push it out. But disbelief is a poorly armed foot soldier. Doubt does away with it with little trouble. You become anxious. Reason comes to do battle for you. You are reassured. Reason is fully equipped with the latest weapons technology. But, to your amazement, despite superior tactics and a number of undeniable victories, reason is laid low. You feel yourself weakening, wavering. Your anxiety becomes dread.

Fear next turns fully to your body, which is already aware that something terribly wrong is going on. Already your lungs have flown away like a bird and your guts have slithered away like a snake. Now your tongue drops dead like an opossum, while your jaw begins to gallop on the spot. Your ears go deaf. Your muscles begin to shiver as if they had a malaria and your knees to shake as though they were dancing. Your heart strains too hard while your sphincter relaxes too much. And so with the rest of your body. Every part of you, in the manner most suited to it, falls apart. Only your eyes work well. They always pay proper attention to fear.

Quickly you make rash decisions. You dismiss your last allies: hope and trust. There, you've defeated yourself. Fear, which is but an impression, has triumphed over you.

The matter is difficult to put into words. For fear, real fear, such as shakes you to your foundation, such as you feel when you are brought face to face with your mortal end, nestles in your memory like a gangrene: it seeks to rot everything, even the words with which to speak of it. So you must fight hard to express it. You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if you don't, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even to manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you.

-Yann Martel, Life of Pi

December 24, 2005

just a taste

"To me, religion is about our dignity, not our depravity."

- Yann Martel, Life of Pi

That's just the tip of the iceberg...

December 10, 2005

On my competitive nature

I'll copy the warning previously seen at Erik's SnowedIn:

Warning: If you are easily bored by long drawn-out descriptions of running, you should probably skip this entry.

For a change of pace, I went to IU's HPER (School of Health, Physical Education, & Recreation) Gymnasium to exercise this morning. HPER (pronounced "hyper") is a huge and old gym, with an underground workout facility, lopsided indoor track, and damn near 20 indoor basketball courts (this is Indiana, after all). My normal exercise routine is to go over to my apartment complex's indoor facility, which is quite nice, but only offers treadmills for running. So I went for a run on HPER's indoor track.

While I was warming up, I saw a bunch of guys (and one lady) standing around on a basketball court, just waiting for something. Eventually, some guys showed up and started dispersing information. At first, I thought it was a pickup basketball tournament or something...but then I thought that 8:30 AM on a Saturday might be a little too early for something like that.

Turns out it was a testing session for the local Police recruiting agency. So these people all wanted to be Police officers. They started off with some races, one lap around the track. One lap is approximately 1/6 mile, so they were able to do it pretty quickly.

Later they started their longer run, and it pretty much coincided with the start of my run. Now, I was expecting a leisurely run for myself...but then when I saw all these people running, my competitive nature kicked into high gear. There's something about a track full of people that kicks up my pace into high gear. I love the feeling of catching up to someone, telling them they're doing a good job (not in a snooty or mean way!), then running past them. I don't know if it's my ego or what...but it feels good.

Turns out I've still got some speed in my legs. I don't know exactly what my pace was, but I think I caught the middle of the pack a few times, meaning I "lapped" a bunch of people. My mile pace was probably around 7 minutes per mile...I think. The soon-to-be police bowed out after a mile or so, and I continued for another mile and a half, because I was feeling good.

The best part was talking with people toward the back...I would slow up a little and talk with them...I tried to cheer them up and give some advice on how to maintain their speed at the end. The advice was appreciated, a few of the guys thanked me as they left the track.

So yeah...that was really fun, and now I'm enjoying a little runner's high. It feels good to get back into running, I just hope I can keep it up over the break. :-)

December 09, 2005

Remember

"Free Advice" (with purchase of book)

• Think More, Design Less
• Say More, Write Less
• Spend More, Buy Less
• It is easier to talk than to listen.
• No job is too small.
• An interface calls attention to itself at its point of failure.
• The early bird gets to work before everyone else.

Courtesy Ellen Lupton

This is just a sampling of the great advice, I recommend the book.

Marty Party

I can't believe nobody on PlanetInfo has blogged this yet...come on y'all, look alive! ;-) I'll just blog the part of it that I found interesting, and I'll depend on the rest of you to fill in blanks as you see fit.

So Marty's party was initially to be of the regular ol' holiday variety, until he came upon the insight that Nick, in his 32 years of life, has never had a birthday party. Of course, this meant that a surprise party had to be thrown. A team of us went to lunch one day at Roots and made some plans. The main idea was that we'd be having a regular birthday party when, all of a sudden, we'd break into stories about how we remember actually being at Nick's birthday party each year, proving that he was lying about never having a party thrown for him. As each person told their story, they were to give Nick a memento to help him remember the event. Of course, none of the stories were to be true...half the fun is in the fabrication.

It went off without a hitch. Simply brilliant. From Jesse's story of Nick's first birthday...featuring brownies served in a diaper...straight through to the end, I thought it was amazing.

Well done everyone. All the fabricated stories were quite entertaining...creative and funny people you all are. I'm glad we could all come together and do that for our friend. Happy Birthday, Nick.

By the way, that was the second surprise birthday party I attended of the day. Earlier we surprised Will for his upcoming birthday. Also a lot of fun. Happy Birthday to you as well, Will. :-)

December 07, 2005

The User

And I quote:

"The dominant subject of our age has become neither reader nor writer but user, a figure conceived as a bundle of needs and impairments-cognitive, physical, emotional. Like a patient or child, the user is a figure to be protected and cared for but also scrutinized and controlled, submitted to research and testing.

How texts are used becomes more important than what they mean. Someone clicked here to get over there. Someone who bought this also bought that. The interactive environment not only provides users with a degree of control and self-direction but also, more quietly and insidiously, it gathers data about its audiences. Barthes's image of the text as a game to be played still holds, as the user respond to signals from the system. We may play the text, but it is also playing us."

Ellen Lupton, Thinking with Type (Book Website)

Protopage

How cool is this!? (It's a question, not a statement.)

http://www.protopage.com/josh.ev9

December 05, 2005

On Letters

I just spent the evening reading about letters. Really interesting stuff. There's much more to the design of typefaces and fonts than I had realized.

When we talk about ubiquity in HCI classes, we think of it in terms of computers being in many places, but if you really think about it, letters are objects that are truly ubiquitous. Take a look around you right now. Notice the letters that surround you. There are thousands of letters looking directly at me right now. On mugs, boxes, cd cases, book bindings, computer screens, envelopes, tags...I could go on and on. How about you? Now think about the fact that the typeface for each of those sets of letters was laboriously designed by an individual, a designer whose job it is to instill meaning into a form that goes hugely unnoticed. Though I'd argue that we don't actually ignore the meaning in typefaces. We take meaning from the typeface, it's just something that is implied by the design and isn't meant to call attention to itself.

Behind each typeface, groups of which come together to form fonts, there is probably a long history...filled with stories about guys named Baskerville, Didot, Helvetica, Palatino. And even stories about their lovers, such as Mrs. Eaves (she and ol' Baskerville had a thing going on).

Anyway, I just thought it was interesting that there's much more to a font than its point size and serif or sans-serif nature. Gripping reading...I look forward to the next chapter, Text.

Hey, did you know that Italics are named as they are because they came originally from Italy? Now you do.

December 01, 2005

Sponsor me on Flickr

A fantastic gift for yours truly this holiday season: a Flickr Pro account. Click the link to sponsor me and I'll love you forever. :-)

You can see what I've done so far with my free account here.

The essence of a song

I wish I could post the "essence" of a song. You know? It's not that I need the lyrics, or the singer's voice, or anything really other than the feeling that comes from listening.

This morning on my drive in to school the radio station played Long December by the Counting Crows and it just felt so right. It's the first day of December. It was snowing outside...the first real snow of the season. I was tired...feeling a little gloomy. Even though I was already late for my meeting, I couldn't help but sit in my car as I pulled up to the building and wait for the song to end, belting out every last word. I then calmly went about my day. How do I encapsulate that feeling?

On a similar note, I've been listening to some Israeli music that I snagged from Karen and it is also fantastic. I can't understand a word, but I love this stuff. Rock music with a pleasant mix of acoustic, electric, & violins. I'm a sucker for well executed string instruments.

Anyway, back to work...

A Little Challenge

Here's the deal...I have some questions. I'll pose it, then you should comment on it.

I'm really tired lately! Why is that? How could technology help this problem? Could it possibly be due to all this technology?

Ready? Go!

November 23, 2005

My Quiz

I made a Quiz for You on QuizYourFriends.com

CLICK on the link below or PASTE it into your browser.
http://www.quizyourfriends.com/yourquiz.php?quizname=051123214837-512833

November 22, 2005

The most most accurate search engine

I've thought about this idea for a while. Lots of people seem to think they prefer Google to any other search engine...but I'd say that if you did a blind taste test people wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Well, this site's doing it.

Here's the test

And here are the results so far

November 18, 2005

Chart Junk

This is priceless. Imagine someone presenting this in class. I especially like figure 11.

Why you should continue to date me; a series of charts and graphs.

Strongbad drawlings

strongbad
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

Tonight Will & I took turns drawing Strongbad (and also Homestar Runner). What do you think of our renditions?

New Blog

newWeblog
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

Look how much brighter by blog is now! Tell me what you think!

I also noticed that the comment functionality has been broken on my last few posts. That should be fixed now...I'll have to remember not to put quotes or question marks in my titles! Darn movable type! Anyway, if you had anything you were dying to say, you can do so now.

Look for new functionality on my blog soon...and perhaps one day I'll even get around to writing a nice (read: non default) layout template!

Old Blog

oldWeblog
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

This is what my blog used to look like. Today I spent some time and changed some of the colors...

November 16, 2005

Another Evening Wasted

So I've been working on this Javascript thing all afternoon/evening. What a massive waste of time... This is the result:

Check it out

November 14, 2005

My First Real Portfolio

I've been working on my portfolio for the last few hours. By portfolio, I actually mean my "real, honest to goodness, and without doubt" design portfolio. I've had a web portfolio for a while now...but this is the real deal.

I'm not too sure about what it looks like at this point. I don't really come from a really strong "official" design background, so I've never been taught what is supposed to go into a portfolio. All I know is that I was asked to submit a portfolio that is less than 3 mb...and this is 2.75.

Take a look at it, and please offer criticism. I'd much rather be beat down by my friends than by someone who might be in the position to offer me a job. :-)

Check it out (pdf, 2.75 mb)

November 12, 2005

Why must technology suck

I swear, every time I have a seamless experience with a computer, something bad has to happen. This afternoon (which has now become evening) I've been turning an old video of my Grandpa into a DVD at library. This sort of thing takes a while, and i was prepared for that...but now it's all effed up.

The video looked great in iMovie, and was perfect when I previewed it in iDVD...so I burned some copies to DVD. I then packed my bags up and all of a sudden thought to myself, "Hey Josh, you should check to make sure it burned properly." So I put the disc in and lo and behold the audio track is the Helen Keller movie. HOW THE HELL DID THAT HAPPEN? Nothing I've done here has anything to do with the Helen Keller movie! It's just so damn random that I have to laugh.

The library let me borrow a portable hard drive so I can transfer the video to my laptop, and take the problems home with me instead of sitting here. Oh, look, now the computer is telling me that the file cannot transfer because of an error. Please, Apple, don't tell me that I spent my entire afternoon in vain...

The fucking Helen Keller movie...I still can't believe it.

Update: Alright...I give up. I'm starting from scratch, everything I've done since 3 o'clock this afternoon has been for naught. So, what are you doing on this beautiful Saturday evening?

November 10, 2005

The World's Big Rocks

I've been thinking really big thoughts this afternoon & evening. I keep thinking these thoughts about designing things that are sustainable. Part of me really wants to study this deeply, but I'm not sure if anyone at my school is teaching about it.

In architecture, people think about the entire lifespan of a structure, including what will happen when the building eventually has to be destroyed. Special materials are used, and even the aesthetics of the building can be considered to make it look nice in its golden years. I admit, I really don't know anything about this, so if my explanation sounds rudimentary, that's because it is.

I'm not sure what the digital version of sustainable design is. Should we go back to counting our bits so that we don't need to continue to buy new hard drives and dispose of the old ones? Old computers are really bad for our environment when they aren't recycled properly (which is more often than not). None of the big players are really thinking about designing sustainable products...in fact they are thinking quite the opposite. If people are trained to buy a new computer every two years, then the companies make more money. Why would a company like Apple, Dell, etc. decide to make a computer that lasts longer, or one that uses materials that can more easily be recycled?

"But Josh, these companies do have recycling programs!" you say.

Well I know that, but maybe recycling isn't enough. Maybe we need to develop an organic computer. One that grows into flowers if you plant it in your garden. Maybe that thinking is too hopeful. I don't really care about feasibility at this point...it's the point that counts.

Speaking of ideas...I keep thinking about teaching design to Urban High School students. The design world is a pretty homogenous one, from what I've seen so far, and I believe this field could progress a great deal with more diversity. We'd design for those who really matter...not just for the upper class rich people, but for those who really need great design most. It's with this in mind that I would really like to introduce an after-school curriculum in which students learn about the world of design. I don't think this stuff is really so hard to grasp that a teenager couldn't get it. In fact, I think with their creative minds might do this stuff better than a lot of my colleagues, myself included. I'd like to pursue this idea, I think for now it's just a question of timing...oh, and location...there aren't exactly any urban areas too close to Bloomington.

This evening I watched a documentary at school called Secrets of Silicon Valley. It was a pretty sad story. One never really thinks about where this technology is actually built. In fact, for every printer, pda, laptop, desktop, server, etc., there is a huge team of people who work in a factory in horrible conditions. Tomorrow I'll meet and talk with one of the main people in the movie, Raj Jayadev. He was a factory worker who was fired for bringing up health & safety issues while working for HP. He won his wrongful termination case, if that helps matters... Anyway, I recommend this film for anyone who uses technology (and if you're reading this blog, then that means you).

Anyway, these are the big rocks I've been thinking about lately. Thanks for hearing me out, if you've made it this far. :-)

November 09, 2005

Good Time To Be a UXer

Good Time To Be a UXer
Originally uploaded by lantzilla.

This is absolutely awesome. I'm not sure if the Flickr annotation feature will work from my blog...but click on this picture and it will take you to Flickr so it can work.

My resume is the one outlined on the right...I didn't do this, but as you can tell, some really nice person out there left a note with a link to my resume.

Technology is awesome. Thanks soldierant, and definitely Bloomington represent.

Ideo Method Cards

Fantastic gift idea for yours truly: Ideo Method Cards

November 06, 2005

The Government-Citizen Interface

I just read a rather poignant blog article* about the non-"user friendly" nature of having an initiative added to the California ballot. (The challenging nature of this process is likely present in most states.) In case you weren't aware, California has a special election coming up that The Governator called in order to save the state some cash by passing some of his initiatives (the only problem is that the election itself will cost millions...).

In my opinion, the interface between the Government and its citizens is completely flawed. As an Interaction Designer, one of the key rules (or heuristics) I try to follow is to speak the user's language. Government processes fail miserably at this task. In order to get nearly anything done, one must hire a translator, or team of translators (read: lawyer or team of lawyers), which can cost into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. This applies to the courtroom as well, where most Americans cannot be expected to defend themselves because they do not speak "legalese."

Why are we stuck on these old, decrepit ways of makind decisions? Are they really that effective? I would guess that redesigning the system could save the government millions of dollars, and actually make the law comprehensible to those it claims to protect. That would be pretty nice, don't you think?

* I guess I should offer full disclosure...the blog article was written by my brilliant sister, Tami Evnin.

Name that tune

You think you got it,
Ooh you think you got it,
But got it just don't get it when there's nothing at all-all-all-all-all.

(Ya'll don't want to hear me
You just want to dance
Hey Ya.. Hey Ya
Hey Ya.. Hey Ya
Hey Ya.. Hey Ya
Hey Ya.. Hey Ya)

Is it possible to have never heard that song? Apparently it is...

October 29, 2005

On Architecture & The University of Chicago

University of Chicago
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

Aren't these buildings beautiful? I think so. So detailed, so ornate, they have that gothic thing going for them like crazy. This is an architectural style we have really lost.

I took a walk around the University of Chicago campus yesterday while Karen was in a meeting. Like most college campuses I've visited, the University of Chicago is quite beautiful. Walls & buildings are ivy-covered, and the buildings have great little details like faces and animals growing out of them. Doorways aren't just doorways, they're artistic renditions of the concept.

Eli (or is it Marty) says that engineers build systems by adding details, designers do so by taking details away, simplifying tasks by only displaying/allowing what is needed. Modern architecture seems to take the design approach, simplifying buildings to their basic building blocks. This likely makes them much easier to build, and perhaps allows architects to figure out how to make the structures taller & taller & taller. I think, though, that it may be a mistake to continue this trend. I'd like to make a call to current and upcoming architects: bring back detailed, artistic accoutrements to modern architecture. These details shouldn't be banished to academic and older buildings.

Ahh, I love the architecture of college campuses. Am I prepared to leave academia? (Related question: am I prepared to enter "the real world?") Oy...

October 26, 2005

This one's for Karen

Cooper and Evan.
Originally uploaded by ravenswift.

Are you as tired as this dog? Just checking.

October 24, 2005

restful weekend

For a good summary of the start of my weekend see: Friday Night, Saturday Morning, and Saturday Evening. Thanks for making that oh so easy, Erik.

Sunday was a relaxing one...chilled all morning, which included a deep cleaning of my room. It's kinda spotless now, but I should be able to fix that in the next few days. I feel a lot better when I'm in cleaner conditions, but I find it really difficult to keep my surroundings clean. Whadda mess.

Yesterday afternoon I met up with Apurva to work on Capstone stuff. I'm really excited about what we're doing. For me, the most important part of the experience is the simple act of collaboration. Apurva & I are studying very very different topics, yet we have found a way to work together to gather data. That helps the projects move along with a lot less effort, and probably better results. It's also nice to work with a brilliant designer, that'll definitely have positive effects on my project. Anyway, if you're in the area come on by the Informatics building and check out our "exhibit." I'm interested to see what we learn.

Anyway, I'm well-rested and ready to call it a new week. Happy Monday!

October 23, 2005

Interesting search result

I just decided to put in a random search on El Goog and it returned an interesting result. The query was "carne asada fries," one of my favorite SD Mexican dishes (can't be classified as an actual Mexican dish, because I don't think it's authentic).

Anyway, the result is interesing because the first 5 sites are the normal "top 5 hits," but then I see a hard rule on the page followed by a suggested query, "carne asada fries recipe," then shows results for that suggested query. I think that's pretty cool, though a bit invasive. It also works for the word "hamburger." Looks like Google is trying to guess when you want to cook...

October 21, 2005

Testing flock

I'm playing with Flock...a new browser based on Firefox.  It does a bunch of cool stuff...maybe i'll tell you more about it later...if this blog post works from it ;-)

Check out Flock

October 20, 2005

Blog as Life Assurance

So I haven't posted anything here in a while...I'm not sure why. I guess I just haven't been compelled to write anything lately. I know some have wondered if I'm still alive and kicking, so I want to assure you all that, in fact, I am.

Life has been ebbing and flowing much lately, to the tune of "Wow! I can't believe I'm so busy!" and "Ladeedah, I've nothing to do...". It's in the moments of high stress that I find myself wasting away, seemingly millions of things to do all at once. Then the next day I'll be free as a pancake(?), waiting for the next project to pop up. I guess it's alright though...better to be sporadically busy than busy all the time, right?

I'll leave you with a happy story. I've been thinking about going to this Academic/Professional Conference, Designing the User Experience or DUX2005. It's in San Francisco in the first week of November. I talked to the sister, who goes to the Berk about staying with her. She happily agreed, yay! So then last Thursday I decided to book my flight for the conference because I found a great deal on Southwest. Ok, so 2 steps out of the way:

1. Take care of lodging (free!)
2. Book flight (~$200)
3. Register for conference ($400)

All that was left was registration. I went to the website Monday morning to notice...

HOLY SHIT!

The conference is sold out! (For lack of better words:)Craaaap! Quickly, I shot an email to the Student Volunteer Coordinator (I had applied to be an SV a few months back, but they were out of spots) to see if she could point me out to someone who would be able to help me be able to register. Miraculously, she found an SV spot for me, acknowledging that she enjoyed something I had written in my Student Volunteer application. So I'm going to DUX! I'm super psyched!

I'll do like Erik...if you would like me to send a postcard from SF, email me your address and you'll get one. jevnin AT gmail DOT com :-)

October 11, 2005

Yahoo News Adds Blogs

This is really, really cool...something I've been waiting for for months. I remember back in the last presidential election when I was looking for a definitive source for finding news related blogs. Despite my mediocre efforts, I was unable to find such a source that I could trust.

Now Yahoo! has included Blog search in its News search. This is a great idea because it does not simply make Yet Another Place to Search, as in Google Blog Search. Instead, they added the search somewhere that counts. Great idea, Yahoo, well done.

Yahoo News

October 07, 2005

Wish list

Just FYI. Holiday season coming up and all...

Check it...

October 06, 2005

Unitus

This is pretty cool. Micropayments for charity. Who knew $100 could be worth so much?

Check it

October 03, 2005

My Resume

resume
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

I've been working on my resume this afternoon...I like it much better now. For years I had just been using Word to build my resume, which I now know was a mistake. Today I used Adobe Illustrator, which allows you to arbitrarily place text, graphics, etc whereever you want. Turns out I needed that kind of freedom to really do what I wanted.

Check it out

October 02, 2005

jMinder 1.2

New version of jMinder today! Woohoo!

No feature enhancements...I just think it looks a whole lot nicer. jMinder is a little tool that you can use to send emails or text messages at some point in the future. Simply enter your note and where and when you want it to be sent and it will show up on that date.

Let me know if there's anything that could make this better. Also, tell me how you use jMinder, if you will. :-)

jMinder

October 01, 2005

Long long morning

So I awoke this morning at 6:15 with a feeling of excitement, and an upset stomach. (It's highly possible that I ate way too much for dinner last night.) I was out the door at 7 and on my way to Spencer, Indiana to run in the Owens County YMCA 5k. I threw my bag and directions into the car and was on my way. Spencer is a small town about half an hour north-west of Bloomington.

I pulled in to the YMCA parking lot right in time to get warmed up, but there was only one problem. No one was there! Well, ok, one woman was sitting in her car, but (pardon me for judging) she didn't look like much of a runner. I drove around a little bit to see if the run was perhaps somewhere else in the surrounding area, but to no avail. So I sat in the YMCA parking lot to see if people would show up. As a matter of fact, people did start to show up. Not just any people...lots of young people started to drive up, mostly girls. All were in jeans or other non-running clothing...so I knew they weren't there for the 5k. Damn!

At 8:05 I drove off, telling myself I'd find a high school track on the way home and do my run there (I am obsessed with accurately tracking my mileage). I found a high school nearby, but the band was practicing on the track. Foiled again!

At this point I was feeling a little down, and told myself just to go home for the run. But then not two minutes later, to add insult to injury, I drove by a sign that said, "YMCA 5k go right." I turned right, and half a block later there's the start/finish line. I contemplated starting the run late, but it was already 8:20 (the run started at 8) and this is the sort of race where even the slowest of the slow probably finish in 40 minutes or so. Had it been a longer race I would have jumped in, but at that point it just wasn't worth it.

Sad story, I know. It has a somewhat happy ending, though. In the end I decided to come home and do a mini-biathlon. I started with a brisk 2 mile run, then grabbed my bike and did an additional 15 miles. It felt pretty good, and perhaps I'll be able to work my way up to adding another run at the end...that's how actual biathlons work.

Moral of the story? Well, no moral really...just get out there and exercise, I promise you'll be addicted too.

Go Padres

Padres manager Bruce Bochy on his team making the playoffs despite a losing record, "It's like having a kid, or something...it doesn't happen very often, and it feels great!"

Oy...

September 30, 2005

binging...

I've got grading to do...instead I made a great dinner and am relaxing to The Office. Just FYI...

Tomorrow I think I'll 5k it...more on that to come. Back to the telly...

September 29, 2005

Rollyo

This could possibly be a cool thing. Rollyo, short for "Roll Your Own Search Engine," is a tool you can use to search particular groups of websites that you define. For example, I could roll my own search engine called "News" that only searches CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News...but really there's already a Google News for that. Anyway, check it out.

Soo Funny

This is the funniest thing I have read in a long time:

Check it

from airplanes to future technologies

Had a brief talk with Erik this morning on the way in to school about modern trans-continental flight. He's leaving this afternoon for a quick trip to London and will return this weekend. To me this is quite an amazing feat. 50 years ago people would have said that this would be possible only for the richest of the rich. 100 years ago people would have said this would be impossible, despite the fact that some "may" have been able to fly. 150 years ago this wouldn't have been dreamed of at all.

Erik wisely points out that before flight people would have imagined that by 2005 the technological advances on seafaring crafts would allow them to go much faster, moving from New York to London in only 3 days! But this is not how it turned out. In actuality Erik will fly to London, spend time there, and fly back in a 3 day period. Amazing.

This makes me wonder about what we're not even able to imaging today. What will be the status quo for technology in 2155? It's hard to even think about 2155 as a year at all.

Computers have not been around all that long. We've really only touched the surface of their utility. But maybe the computer will not be a key technology in the future...perhaps it will just be a small, ubiquitous part of the picture, as the electric motor is today.

Whatever the case, I'm aching to know what's next.

September 27, 2005

Silly Argumentation

Sometimes I wonder why we argue about topics on radio, tv, and even in our own homes. This morning I've been listening to an episode of Science Friday that is discussing Plan B medication and its current place in the FDA's approval queue. To briefly sum it up, Plan B was approved for over-the-counter use by a bunch of the FDA's boards, including the ones that have doctors (both the M.D. and Ph.D. types) that actually test the medication in both scientific and real-world tests. There were three guests: a medical doctor who voted for approval, an employee of the FDA who was also for approval, and a medical doctor who voted against approval. These types of shows are always interesting to me because the listener gets to hear many sides of the question in order to really decide what he or she feels on the topic...but...sometimes it's a bit too much for me to listen to these people fight over and over and over about these questions.

The doctor who voted against Plan B was obviously a member of the religious right. All of the points he made were from scientific case studies, not ones that occur in the inner city, and he was easily argued by the other guests, as well as many people who called in. By the end of the show, it was easy to tell that he was frustrated.

Now here's my question: Will this man ever change his opinion on the matter? I doubt it. Have you ever heard someone on one of these shows just break down and say, "Well, gee...I guess you're right." NO!

Why not? Why are we so averse to change, even when it comes to our own opinions. I guess it's because we just want to be right all the time. Well folks, I don't think it's possible to be right all the time, so I'm going to do my part and really question my opinions when someone challenges them, but in doing so, I hope that my challengers will question their own opinions and (inherent) biases as well...

September 26, 2005

Moodsic

Every once in a while my Shuffle really really really comes through. This morning I barely made it through my Graphic Design class. It's a really interesting class, but, as I have told many around me, there's a world of difference between a class that starts at 8 AM and one that starts at 9. I'm just so drowsy at the 8 o'clock hour. Anyway, I put my headphones in as class ended and can now say that I'm back. One uplifting song after another...great stuff.

There's something to this idea of randomness in daily life. When all of our technology seems to be leaning toward more and more control of the little things, sometimes it's nice to not know what's coming next. Let's keep working on that. Randomness is bound to be for the better.

September 25, 2005

Initiative Madness

Just got permission to post this link...here's a fantastic blog that's meant to "inform younger voters about the [upcoming California] special elections." Thanks to somebody's sister for the link (she's one of the writers ;-)

Initiative Madness

September 21, 2005

Idea Generation

Here's a keeper. This site lists ways to generate ideas. It got rave reviews when I posted it on my program's listserv (5 responses in 28 minutes, so far).

Microphone check it: Idea Generation Methods

Alright, let's do this

I'm too busy for this. I don't have the effing time to go around spreading my opinion on issues of computing, software, design, etc. There are so many pressing matters I should be tending to...but I need to vent.

DON'T WATCH THIS MICROSOFT PROPAGANDA VIDEO

Or watch it, at your own discretion. So Microsoft has been doing this thing lately where they send out this guy to interview developers on Microsoft's various projects. The videos are generally somewhat boring...most of the time it's just a bunch of guys sitting around in a room acting really geeky and talking about software (which resembles my life a little too clearly, but at least we have a few women around).

What I learned today, however, is that these "uncut" movies are actually a clever ploy by Microsoft to try to earn back its much needed core of amateur software developers (or professional ones who don't like to develop for Microsoft). How did I learn this? Well, if you pay close attention, you'll notice that the videos are actually cut together to say exactly the types of things the people at Microsoft want you to hear.

For example, the video linked above is a visit to the Hotmail team, who has been busy creating the new version of Hotmail, codenamed "Kahuna." The guy behind the camera asks the question, "So, does this work on browsers other than IE?" Answer: "Yeah, we're developing for IE 5.5.96###, because that's our biggest user group"--CUT!!!-- Next we see a guy explaining a new feature. It's nice to know there's some honest reporting going on out there.

The other thing that really upsets me is that at the beginning of the video one of the developers describes how they went in to a room and tried to rethink email on the web. They weren't trying to build a system like the old Hotmail, or any other mail software. Creativity is a great thing. They had an outstanding opportunity here...but they failed. When they actually showed the demo of the new Hotmail, it looked exactly like MS Outlook. WTF Microsoft!!!??? That's what you get when you tried to be creative? Something's wrong with that picture. I wonder if they even tried talking to users...

September 16, 2005

Happy 200th or What if?

This is my 200th blog entry...go me! Woohoo! What if I lived in an alternate universe?

September 15, 2005

Photo Recovery!

I forgot to tell you all, something really exciting happened last night! So, nearly a year ago I was playing with my computer, doing some fancy shmancy stuff that resulted in me losing access to all my data. Now, most of my important data is backed up somewhere (which I recommend to everyone), but my photos were not backed up...so I lost nearly all of them. That was pretty much my entire college career worth of pictures...gone! Caput! Last night I was able to recover them, using my trusty Mac. I'm really excited about this, and will be posting pictures from the recovered archive shortly.

September 14, 2005

some sappy cliché crap

Seems a number of people around me (colleagues, friends, colleague-friends, etc.) are feeling a little more than frustrated about a number of things these days. Why is that, I wonder. As for myself, I've been doing peachy keen up until this afternoon. Yesterday I couldn't keep the smile off my face, up until I was late for my evening class because of some computer issues while I was working on a problem for another class. But even then I seemed relatively happy. Tonight that is not the case. I'm tired. I'm weary. I'm sick of this damn frog in my throat caused by allergies.

There's so much to do, so much to miss, so much to take on, so much to be happy about, and so little time to do it all in. This afternoon as I walked outside Erik told me to stop and smell the flowers, literally, as they seemed to be all big and blooming right now. I looked at him in astonishment...who has time to stop and smell flowers these days? I did stop for a quick sniff, but it wasn't long enough for my liking. I'll be working on that.

But it isn't all on me. I need to remember that. Others can take responsibility too, but I won't get into all that here. The days are getting longer and longer, but oh so short at the same time. Stresses will come and go, and we must remember to enjoy every last drop of this trip, because we don't get a second chance...as cliché as it sounds.

If you're hurting right now, hurt no more. Continue the search, but slap on a smile, damn it, for all of us. Make every day worth it, and in the end it will be. As for me, I'll continue to look for inspiration, and act the part as well. Goodnight moon.

Sites for HCI Peeps to check out

Shout out to all my HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) homies out there, wooty woot. Just wanted to recommend a couple sites for you to check out, you know, just to stay on top of your game and such. I was thinking of hiding these in links in my blog over the next few days, but on second thought I've decided to be more forthright. So here's my list...feel free to add more in the comments.

I check out the research areas of a bunch of companies fairly regularly...the basics are:

• Google Labs
• Yahoo Next
• MSN Sandbox

Of course, I also read a ton of blogs quite regularly. Bloglines is my aggregator of choice. Check it out, it's not as technical as it may sound. If you're interested in reading blogs by students in the School of Informatics, check out Planet Informatics.

All you humans out there should also check out the Wikipedia...a great first place to stop for information on anything and everything. Other cool wikis for Informatics folk are the Design Wiki, Design Club Wiki, and Echoes Wiki. BTW, for those of you who are lost right now, here are some definitions for the word Wiki and a better explanation.

Oh, and while you're at it, don't get caught in a bubble.

September 12, 2005

UbiComp Ethics

Here's a great article on the ethical standards of Interaction Designers in the era of Ubiquitous Computing.

The actual ethics start about halfway down the page, but it's a good read even before that.

Check it out

To the ethics stated here, I would add:

Principle 6. Be Imaginative.* Do not create a system or piece of a system simply to for the sake of itself. If the "user" could make a cup of coffee (for example) just as easily without your system, then there's no need for the system to be there. This may seem obvious, but why do I get the feeling that it won't be in about 12 years?

WARNING: It's gets a little technical for the untrained eye, so beware. All you HCIers, have at it.

* This is a shout out to Marty's Computer Imagination, aka "The thing that HCI/d'ers should strive for."

September 09, 2005

Heck of a workout

I went to the gym this morning for the first time in a long time. Since the marathon I've been trying to exercise outdoors more. I've cycled, ran, walked, and climbed (though I guess climbing doesn't really count because it was an indoor climbing gym). For some reason, though, I feel like this workout routine isn't giving the results I'd like to see. That is, I don't feel like I'm doing any of them regularly enough to feel a difference. When I was training for the marathon, I felt light on my toes, and I had a lot of energy during the day...but that was because I had a routine. There's something about going into the gym that helps the routine continue to function...

I was soooo tight today. My muscles felt like blocks of wood as I ran. Stretching was rather painful. This pain should subside in the next few weeks, though. I think the reason that I'm so tight is that when I ride my bike I don't do any stretches. Basically what I'm doing when I ride without stretching is loosening up my muscles to their maximum potential, then sitting in an air-conditioned building and allowing them to shrink down to an ultra-tight level. Then I do it again at the end of the day. Bad bad bad. Note to Josh: stretch during & after exercise, always.

So yeah, got my jog on this morning, then stretched, then did some other exercises for the joints in my legs and arms. I want a strong core oh so badly. By core, I mean I would like for my joints to be really strong and lubricated. When most people talk about their core they mean their abdomen...but not for me. Maybe there's some new jargon I need to learn...naw, I'd rather keep making up my own.

I feel that this entry has been poorly written from start to end, so that's that. I'm gonna end it riiiiight now.

September 07, 2005

This is Design

This is Design
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

Just playin' around in illustrator...I gotta get back to paying attention in class...

September 06, 2005

Updated Portfolio

So I spent the evening last night updating my portfolio.

Lesson 1: Update your portfolio directly after finishing a project, then the material will still be fresh to you AND you won't have a million things to update.
Lesson 2: I'm doing a lot of work that I'm pretty proud of...I only noticed it when it was all staring me in the face.
Lesson 3: I want to be able to put a lot more good work on the portfolio...so I gotta get to work this year.
Lesson 4: I should start thinking more seriously about what I'm going to do when grad school's over. Any offers? ;-)

Check out my updated portfolio: http://josh.ev9.org/portfolio.php

September 04, 2005

'Nother Quote

"The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war." - Asian Proverb

Wise words, Proverb, wise words.

August 28, 2005

Quote of the Day

"Dreams are not so different from deeds as some may think. All the deeds of men are only dreams at first. And in the end, their deeds dissolve into dreams."

-Theodore Herzl, Old New Land, 1902

Have I mentioned I'm sick

and tired and hungry. I'm sitting in the library at school right now, waiting for some files to transfer (41 minutes remaining). I've been here for a couple hours. I'm taking these old video tapes of my Grandma & Grandpa talking about how it was when they were growing up and converting them to DVD. Should be a little more permanent in digital format. One of my concerns, however, is how to keep the high resolution of the video tape onto a DVD. Maybe this will be better when those high-capacity DVDs come around...but that won't be for another few years, and by then the VHS tape may have lost its quality...what's a boy to do?

Anyway...hopefully I'll get out of here sooner than the computer predicts (39 minutes) so that I can take my weary body back home for some dinner and a movie. School starts tomorrow...I have class bright and early at 8 AM. Sweet...or not so much. Hopefully I get into this class, drippy nose or not. (38 minutes remaining...)

Best Radio Show...EVER

I *heart* This American Life. Such a fantastic show, week after week, year after year.

August 27, 2005

I forgot your bday...so sorry

It turns out that yesterday was the one year anniversary of Notta Blog. I knew the anniversary was coming up...I just didn't realize it would come so soon. This is a celebration of my 3rd stab at blogging...which has been the most successful go thus far. In this one year I have written about 185 entries. If you're up for it, read the entire year...starting with the first.

Back in the Midwest, together

IMG_5444
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

Stop putting it off

So I've been seriously slacking on blog updates lately. Sorry about that. Thoughts to blog have been building up in my head for a while now, which causes me to become more and more anxious when it comes to updating the blog. This happens to others, right? You let something build up for so long that when you finally get around to doing it you are scared to do so just because of all the catching up you'll have to do. Well, it's time for me to face the music...time for some catching up.

Speaking of catching up, I just spoke with the Ice-Man himself. Good friend, always an easy one to catch up with.

In the background is the new Gavin DeGraw album, Chariot. I bought it at the recommendation of Zach Braff, the director of Garden State and Gavin DeGraw's latest music video. It's pretty high quality so far. I'm quite impressed with Zach Braff...he just seems to be on fire these days when it comes to relating to 20-somethings.

Anyway, let's talk about what's been going on lately.

The Roadtrip

Once again, I took a trip across the country in the aging (in a good way) Santa Fe. This time my cross-country accomplice was K, as in Karen. We had a fun trip...here's a quick synopsis:

Arizona was a fun state...we saw Flagstaff, Meteor Crater, and Petrified Forest National Park. Over the next few days we went through New Mexico (brief stop in Albuquerque), the Texas panhandle (another brief stop in Amarillo), and Oklahoma, where we had a nice stop in Tulsa. Next time you're in Tulsa, look out...it's really easy to get lost there, especially in the downtown area. Next we headed to St. Louis to see the Gateway Arch. I think Missouri is the most beautiful state to drive through. Rolling, tree-lined hills abound. It's gorgeous...plus the fact that there are adult video stores every few miles is fun. Stop for a good sandwich in Lebanon, MO...tell 'em Josh sent you. The trip ended in Chicago, where K is going to school. We hung out in the city and took a couple trips to Ikea (damn those poorly marked boxen).

Surprise Ending

Fairly standard roadtrip, right? Well, I wouldn't be so sure. By the end of the trip, K & I had decided to get back together. So that's my news. :-) I'm happy and really excited about the future. It's like a second chance at happiness, and at an oh so perfect time. It's weird how the world works...like my dad told me as I moved to grad school, "You never know where you'll end up...anything could happen." For some reason, though, things generally tend to make sense. Ok, enough of the oooey goooeyness...

Re-Oriented

This week was orientation at the School of Informatics. It's been good seeing old friends, and meeting new ones too. Wednesday Erik, Will, & I threw a welcome back party. We had a huge turnout. The apartment was packed. I think everyone had a good time, and the food was fantastic. Shout-outs go to Erik, Apurva, & Elan on that.

I'm a little hesitant about school at this point...it's been a long time since I've felt really really really busy, and I think a bunch of business is going to overtake my life starting Monday. We'll see if I'm up for the challenge in a week or so.

Ok, I'm pooped. My body is getting sick...hopefully it won't last long (the sickness, not the body). Enjoy the Flickr Pix. Peace outside.

August 09, 2005

Check out these thingies!

Check out these thingies!
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

It's my last day in NYC...and I'm reppin' Intuit (I swear it's a coincidence that all of my other clothes are dirty ;-). Right now I'm in JFK airport, pondering the plans for tomorrow and beyond. At some point I'll be heading to SD one last time (anybody looking for a twin bed in the SD area? I'll give you a good price), spending time with the fam, and then heading back to good ol' Indiana.

I'll update more later. Enjoy the flickrPix for now (located on the right-hand sidebar). Peace outside.

(jetBlue flight 89, if you're interested. At this point we're delayed 20 minutes, but I'm enjoying jetBlue's free wireless too much to notice...)

August 04, 2005

I'm in NYC

Me in Central Park
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

So here I am in New York City (get a rope), hangin' with my Mama & Tami (hereafter MaTama). We've been doing sooo much. Tami and Mom are big fans of what I like to call "formal tourism." This is the kind of tourism where you go from point to point in order to take pictures of yourself in front of whatever landmark you went to. This type of travel most definitely has its merits, but I think my preferred style of travel is a little different.

For lack of a better way to explain it, I'll just say that I like to "live as the natives do." Anyone who has studied ethnography* will recognize that this is a great way to learn about a culture. When I went for a little sidetrip this morning on a trip to the SoHo Apple Store (don't ask why I'd go there on vacation...my damn iPod was on the fritz), I found myself impersonating the people I walked by, learning more with each passing New Yorker. By the time I was ready to jump on a subway to meetup with MaTama, there were people asking me directions throughout the city. No joke, I was asked directions at various points by at least 5 people. Perhaps I pass for a New Yorker after all.

I really enjoyed the walk...except for the heat! It's painfully humid here, and my body is quite simply not used to it at all. Every time I walk outside my forehead starts to drip...I was soaking by mid-afternoon. The things they say about California being a dry heat are all true...another reason to move west, and stay there**.

Ok, I'm off to bed I think...I'll let Tami have her time at the computer. Peace outside.

*Shout out to my Informist amigos, I miss you & I'll be back soon :-)

**Shout out to my SD amigos, I miss you & I'll be back even sooner, if only for a short while :-)

July 28, 2005

Bike Ride 7/28/2005

Bike Ride 7/28/2005
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

What a wonderful ride. Every once in a while I sit up from whatever I'm doing and tell myself to get off my butt and go exercise. This has been happening more and more lately.

They say the best time to work out is when your body is begging you to do so. Well my body obviously needed some kind of entertainment today because I did 8 miles without a hitch.

Check out a detailed version of my ride. I think I'm going to enjoy cycling...it's much easier on my knees :-)

July 24, 2005

Boxy Guy

I've been playing with Flash again, therefore it's time for you to see a sample of my work. Here's a seemingly simple one...there should be more to come.

July 20, 2005

The Map is Off!?

So it turns out that if you want to get directions to my home home (in Chino Hills), online mapping services are always wrong. For some reason, they put my house up the street from where it actually lies. What's up with that? More importantly, how do I get it fixed? Mapquest, Yahoo! Maps, and Google Maps all put my house in the same location, so it can't be them that's the problem. From whom do they buy their mapping data, and how can I get this problem solved? Anybody have any tips?

July 16, 2005

jMinder 0.8

I'm releasing a new version of jMinder today. You can now send a text message to your cell phone as well as an email address. Check it out!

(If you run into any errors, please let me know...I'm still trying to work out the kinks...)

If you're not familiar with jMinder, it is simply a service that allows you to send an email to yourself (or anybody else) in the future. Simply write a message, enter an email address and/or cell phone number, choose a date you would like the message to be sent, and press submit. The message will be automatically sent on that date!

Next goal: time-of-day based messaging!

jMinder

July 12, 2005

Is it just me...

or has the London Underground bombings been getting a lot more media coverage than the Madrid bombings did? What does that mean?

July 10, 2005

Moi et ma soeur

tam & josh
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

The lessons of paintball

So I went paintballing today with all five of my college roommates. It was pretty entertaining, but at the end of the day, I think I took a lot more away from the experience than simply shooting balls of paint at my opponents.

See, the paintball course we went to was in Camp Pendleton, one of the largest Marine Corps stations in the country, and immediately one is confronted by soldiers with (real) guns upon entering the facility. Not 30 minutes later was I holding my own (fake) gun, prepared to shoot at all the people standing around me. All of a sudden the "referee" starts the "game" and I'm shooting to kill.

In truth, I was shot and "killed" far more times than I shot anyone else, and in the moments the paintball struck me, I had an overwhelming feeling of fear. After a few seconds the pain subsided and I was able to relax, realizing that I would live to play another game.

It doesn't work that way for a real soldier. The guys on the other side are trained, and instead of soft paintballs their guns are loaded with live ammunition. The point of their "game" is not to capture the other team's flag, but to take out (read: kill) as many of their opponents as necessary in order to take a piece of land, or fulfill some other objective.

It's kind of corny, but as of today I have the utmost gratitude for all the soldiers out there defending our country, and all countries. They say war is hell, and today I experienced that hell, if only for a moment.

I have always wished the fighting that goes on in this world didn't happen, but today I have a deeper understanding of why I feel that way.

July 07, 2005

Map of my morning ride

Here's a map of my morning ride.

I've been looking for a widget like this for months...for the same reason as the creator of the website. While training for the marathon I always wanted to be able to simply go to a map, click points where I ran, and have it calculate the mileage. Finally it comes out, but only after I've run the race...Check out the Gmap Pedometer.

My body is made of plastic

Had a wonderful ride into work this morning. It's a 2.5 mile ride from home to office, probably 2 miles of that is pretty flat, but right at the start there's a huge huge huge hill that just kills every time. Tuesday I made it a little more than 2/3 of the way up before I absolutely had to get off and walk. I remember looking out at this sign post thinking to myself, "Ok Josh, just make it to that sign, then you can walk." Miraculously, today I was able to make it to that sign without even noticing, and rode nearly the entire hill. At the end I started dying (probably because I ate breakfast right before walking out the door), so I walked again and rode the next 2 miles into work.

Yesterday at the climbing gym I was actually able to do some climbing. Everything before yesterday was basically just a warmup routine. I'd get on an easy traverse path, pick some relatively simple problems, and climb until my body was sore. Yesterday, however, I was actually able to climb around until I was sweaty and tired overall, because my body is now able to support me.

I love getting in shape, if for no other reason than the fact that I get to witness my body adapting to change. I see my muscles adapt to the demands and stress, and I can actually feel the plasticity in my brain. That's right, I can intuitively notice how the neurons in my brain are talking to each other in new ways, and know that new neurons are being generated to support the old ones so I can learn become a more adept athlete. I love the feeling of learning, especially when the learning is in the form of tacit knowledge, the kind where I don't have to worry about learning the stuff. I just have to keep doing it and my body will eventually take over. Next time you take on a new task check up on yourself every week or so, and realize that your body is changing in ways you'd never normally think about.

A little over a month ago my body was primed to run a marathon. I am simply amazed that in so little time it can begin to change its form from runner to climber to cyclist and back again.

July 06, 2005

What do I study?

Here's an article that relatively succinctly explains what I study while I'm at school, and practice while I'm at work.

Check it

June 29, 2005

All of a sudden...

everything is starting to come together. I got a bike yesterday. Work is fun. I have plans for July 4 weekend. I'm coding. I'm designing. I'm having fun! Slowly but surely, things are looking up :-)

(Not like they were ever really looking down in the first place...) More on the bike & 7/4 plans later...

June 28, 2005

Google Indiana

Google Indiana
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

So I was playing with Google Earth today and I noticed that the state of Indiana is grey. Why is that?

My suspicion is that Indiana has more detailed maps than the rest of the country. When you take a satellite picture close to the ground it is likely that there is more grey than green in any given shot. The green on the map is due to artificial coloring in areas that are not yet imaged up-close. Any other guesses?

Mad props to Indiana for being well mapped. Woo woo.

back to childhood

Did I miss something in my childhood? Is there any particular reason that I, at the ripe age of 23, love arts & crafts? At 15 you couldn't pay me to walk into Michaels, but today when I go there I feel like I'm in heaven.

The other morning I went to the park in my neighborhood and played on the swings. I often yearn to be back at camp, on my bunk, just chatting with friends. Don't get me wrong, I love being a grown-up, but there's just something about being a kid that would be so fun right about now.

I better get to work, before the boss catches me and The Man brings me down.

June 24, 2005

San Diego...nice.

IMG_4953.JPG
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

I made it to the beach after work today...beautiful.

June 23, 2005

I went Geocaching

geocache_all
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

First question: how do you add -ing to the word 'cache'? Yeah, so it might be cacheing, or it could be caching. I can't decide. Help me out. I'll stick with caching for now.

Anywho, Puneet and I went Geocaching today. It was pretty fun. All in all we hiked about 5 miles and found 2 caches.

How does Geocacheing work? Simple, all you do is go online and look up a challenge, which includes a set of GPS coordinates and perhaps some hints. Then you go out and look for the prize, which is in some sort of waterproof box. When you find the box you leave behind a prize and take something from the inside. You also sign your name to a piece of paper inside. It's good times.

Makes me think I should get a GPS device. Seems like the Geocaching community in Bloomington is alive and thriving. We'll see...I've got a list full of things I'd like to buy, but I'd also like to save some cash.

Try out Geocaching, it's fun. 'night.

June 22, 2005

Everything Bad is Good For You

I finished a book this evening, one which shared the title of this entry. I found it quite interesting. A number of people at my school study the growing science of New Media, which sounds somewhat interesting to me, but is something I have never sat down and tried to think about too deeply. This book gave me a good background into the field, and did a good job of tying modern cognitive science into the lessons.

In Everything Bad is Good For You, Steven Johnson argues against the notion that the technological staples of today's popular culture (Television, Film, Video Games, and the Internet) are not dumbing-down the culture. On the contrary, these media train newer, better cognitive abilities. Johnson argues that as time passes, pop culture is subjected to increasingly complex programming, which leads to greater intelligence, not less.

I found many of the points made in the book to be debatable, but that does not mean that I disagree with Johnson. I believe that on the whole, today's media is much more complex than that of yesteryear. The comedy of "I Love Lucy" doesn't stand a chance when compared with that of "Seinfeld." Sure, they're both funny, but I can watch Seinfeld over and over and still laugh, while an episode of Lucy is bound to get boring after the second viewing. That's just one example of the increasing complexity.

I also agree with Johnson's sentiments that giving respect to today's media does not give us license to forget the old favorites. So maybe TV is good for us, but that doesn't mean reading should go out the window. Book reading is still vital, and we must instill this belief in our culture before we all get too used to the choppy flow of hypertext.

I recommend this book. It's a relatively fast read, and it relates to your life, guaranteed. It is also written in plain English, a considerable feat for such a heavy topic. I'll leave you with the book's conclusion:

The cultural race to the bottom is a myth; we do not live in a fallen state of cheap pleasures that pale beside the intellectual riches of yesterday. And we are not innate slackers, drawn inexorably to the least offensive and least complicated entertainment available. All around us the world of mass entertainment grows more demanding and sophisticated, and our brains happily gravitate to that newfound complexity. And by gravitating,they make the effect more pronounced. Dumbing down is not the natural state of popular culture over time - quite the opposite. The great unsung story of our culture today is how many welcome trends are going up.

June 21, 2005

Why would I leave a comment on my own blog?

Instead I should simply post an entry...duh...

As written previously:

FYI: note for Puneet and others...

You can send emails using the jMinder. Just put today's date and it will be sent within the next few hours. This is only recommended as a workaround...like in Puneet's case.

I need to post more often

Wow, I need to do a good post really soon. I will, I promise. For now this note will make it so the blog doesn't look so barren...

For a good time, check out my Amazon Wish List

June 12, 2005

Cleaning House

I cleaned my room this morning just after I woke up. That is a semi-standard thing for me to do on a Sunday morning. I hadn't cleaned, or even set up, my room since moving in nearly a month ago, so it was definitely heavily needed. There's just something so refreshing about having a clean space to be in. Don't get me wrong, I'm not the kind of person who cleans and cleans and cleans, but when I am in my clean room I am generally in a much better mood. Why is that? I wonder.

Here's one hypothesis: So basically, our brains are order-making machines (I'm not trying to say that our brains are machines, cause that's a whole different debate). Any time we are confronted with a set of details, facts, objects, etcetera, our brain tries to understand the objects with reference to one another. In a cluttered environment, we are so busy trying to make sense out of all of the objects that it is difficult to focus on anything else. When you're in a clean environment, it is much easier to focus on the things that you want to focus on. My point? Clean your room, you'll think better :-) Agree? Disagree? I'd love to hear your opinion on this debate...comment it!

I'd like to give a hearty congratulations to all of my friends who graduated this weekend. It's a huge accomplishment (though it may not seem that way) and you should be proud of yourselves. You are brilliant! Here's to Cindy, Clara, John, Nava, & Puneet (yes, you too). Congrats!

I have felt so tired today. I think it's due to the fact that I went to bed at 5 in the AM on Friday night/Saturday morning. Had to help people celebrate the end of finals week. Life's rough ;-) I'm definitely paying for it today though. I'm always really tired 2 days after staying up late...does that make sense? I'm generally fine the day after staying up late, but the second day is always much more difficult.

Ok, I must sleep. This will be an interesting week at work...I'll be conducting some usability sessions toward the end of the week. The beginning of the week will be dedicated to gathering materials. Hopefully I'll do some climbing this week too. To all you fellow Jews out there, have a fantastic Shavuot, which I totally forgot about until I was reminded this evening!

June 07, 2005

I ran a marathon!

Josh finishes the Rock 'n Roll Marathon in San Diego
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

A lot of people have a lot of theories about marathons. Everybody who has run one in their life will definitely have advice for first-timers.

• Remember to eat a salt packet every few hours.
• Start slow, save your energy for the end
• Don't try anything new on race day

One thing that nobody mentioned is that you should not go to work the day after a marathon. It is such a bad idea. I was so zapped yesterday. I couldn't even walk, let alone think straight.

The marathon was a completely rewarding experience. It was some of the worst pain I have ever experienced in life, but in the end it was definitely worth it. I went much slower than I had expected, due to a late-breaking knee injury, but that should go away in the next few weeks.

The first three miles were piece of cake. I couldn't believe how fast they went. It was easy to rack 'em up in the beginning. A little after mile 3 my left knee started to bug me again. I had taken the last 2 weeks off to let it heal, but the pain creeped its little head, and I had to slow down. I was so disappointed at that point. I tried forcing myself to run, but the searing pain would not allow me to breathe, which is vital, right? I walked the next 20 or so miles at a 15 minute mile pace, which was also painful. See, I trained to run a marathon, not walk one. All of a sudden I was working my walking muscles waaay harder than they were used to.

I saw friends at the early stages of the race. Karen at mile 5 (and again at the finish) and Puneet and Scott at mile 7 or so (and again in the evening). The rest of the race I was pretty much alone. Kinda. I thought about my mom a lot during the race. She was the reason I ran. She inspired me to do it, and supported me throughout training. She was the reason the pain was worth it, and the reason that I ran the last mile as fast as I could, despite the pain in my legs. Thanks for being an inspiration, Mom, I love you.

I should also mention that the Sis, Tami, was also waiting for me at the finish line, done-up hair and all. Tam had prom the night before, and still made it to SD in time to see the race :-D Love you Tam-uh.

I cried a few times during the race. The reasons that people had for running were so inspirational. Some ran for their wives, some for fathers, others for children. Seeing the pictures and names of these people on my competitors' jerseys was so inspirational. Sometimes I just couldn't hold back.

I definitely cried at the finish line. I was so fatigued, and crossing that line represented 6 months of really hard work. Sometimes I worry that I'm not challenging myself enough, but in this case the challenge was surely difficult. I am glad it's over, but I can't wait for the next challenge.

I would like to encourage everyone to consider competing in an event with the Team in Training organization. It is a fantastic training program that will prepare you to compete in a marathon, triathlon, or century ride (cycling). It also supports the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, a fantastic charity. If you have any questions about my experiences with TNT and LLS, I'd be glad to answer them.

Anyway, thanks to all who supported me on this run. There were so many people who were so generous with their support, both verbal and financial. I raised over $2,200, which I am very proud of. Thank you thank you thank you, for supporting me on my trek to become an official marathoner.

June 01, 2005

the most valuable education system

As I was doing some research at work today, I took a break and read all the away messages on my buddy list. I'd say this habit is prevalent among 90% of all AIM users under the age of 25. We all want to know what everyone is doing at all times. Anyway, while reading the messages, I happened upon a question, asked by one of my cousins that intrigued me. It happens to be her "Question of the week" or something like that. Below you'll find her question, followed by my response.

Question: Which education system (classical, modern american, technical training, etc.) do you think is the most valuable? what should be taught in primary and secondary schools today?

Answer: (I hope this isn't too long winded)

Now, I don't want to dive too deep into the semantics of this question. However, as far as I know the modern American education system is simply a more recent instance of the Western Classical Education Model. This model is made up of primary, secondary, and tertiary levels, each emphasizing its own factors. In American schools, primary education ends at the high school level and secondary education ends upon high school graduation. In our system, the tertiary level of education is more widely known as "Post-Secondary" education, and can come in the form of formal collegiate programs, vocational schooling, and even informal apprenticeships.

Personally, I think the post-secondary level of education works. Assuming people are able to choose a profession that they enjoy, they should be allowed to enter that field by whatever educational standards that field demands. I realize that we could, and should, remove many of the barriers that stand in the way of those who would like to enjoy the benefits of the ivory tower, but for the sake of this argument I will submit that if all things are equal, the American post-secondary level of education works well.

Primary and secondary education, however, can use a bit of refocusing. One major addition I see that is needed in the American Primary education system is an emphasis on a foreign language component. Humans lose the ability to acquire new languages between 14 and 20 year of age. That means after that point it is inevitable that learning a new language will require years of intense study, with the downside of imperfect acquisition. We need to train our youth to understand many languages while they have the ability to learn them. Of course, mathematics and verbal skills should remain in primary school curricula, but an emphasis should be placed on useful instantiations of these skills. Math should be concrete, not abstract, so that children can associate and be interested in the field. Computer science should probably be introduced to young children as well.

Our secondary schools should place an emphasis on self-worth. Students should be trained to enjoy the fields in which they excel, and to study them out of interest, not need. Less emphasis should be placed on standardized tests, and more on creative solutions to interesting problems. We need to teach our teens how to ask important questions, not simply how to provide mediocre answers.

I'm sure there's a lot more I have to say on the subject, but, frankly, I'm tired. If you've got comments, I'll be interested to hear them.

Anyway, special thanks should go out to my cousin (who shall remain nameless, unless she wants to be named), for inciting these ramblings and for asking such an interesting question. Thank you for asking an intriguing question. Our secondary education system has trained you well ;-)

Google Ride Finder

Blogging at work...first time, ever! (it's my lunch break :-)

You thought you were just a fan of Google Maps? Check out Google Ride Finder. I can't wait till it comes to a city near me...

Another exciting little innovation by our friends at Google.

May 31, 2005

FYI, Here's the P & S

Originally uploaded by Suzyq2200.

Just in case you all want a mental picture of P & S, for when I mention them on the blog. Thanks to S for the photo...

Don't want to forget to do this again.

Josh & Rachel at Venice Beach
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

I think I promised, didn't I? I went up to LA to hang out with Rachel last weekend. Quick trip that one was. We had good times at Venice Beach and the 3rd Street Promeneade in Santa Monica. Good times in Los Angeles. For all its downsides, I still love LA. Shout out to Rachel, for showing an old friend a good time :-)

Reflective Practicioner

You should see me now. I'm sitting on the beach, literally. I'm here with my computer and a bottle of orange juice and miraculously, I have a wireless internet connection. Life is grand, in a very weird way.

I haven't felt that great today. It's hard to go back to work after a long weekend. I'm pretty busy at work lately, and today I had a new hire orientation on top of everything else. That new hire stuff is pretty much a waste of my time. At least today they gave me free lunch.

I really felt like I was coasting at work today. My body just didn't seem up to performing at a high level. Toward the end of the day a headache started to break out, and it is still with me now. This is why I decided to come to the beach...to get away from it all. So I grabbed some soup, a sandwich, and some orange juice and here I am, blogging away at the beach. I should make this a regular thing.

Here's something you all may not know about me...or maybe you do. Sometimes I love just sitting by myself in some sort of secluded location and getting some pure thinking done. I can't describe the things I think about, because generally they're pretty random. I will say that I rarely think about academic topics during alone time...well, at least I don't think about them in the way I think about them at school. I'll stop trying to explain, because I don't think it's coming out right. The take home message is a beautiful location + alone Josh = a happy Josh. Of course, I also enjoy contemplating with others around, don't let my sentiments fool you.

A throwback to my original blog title, here are some Random Randoms:

• La Jolla is beautiful
• Life is much happier than it seems
• By this time next week I will have run a marathon
• I miss Indiana
• My knees have been very tender lately, which scares me
• Fried foods are bad for the soul
• I'm so sorry that you're in pain
• Students at my alma mater are shut-ins
• I'm not a fan of cats at all right now
• Friends from way back are awesome
• New friends are fantastic as well
• A good acoustic guitar riff never fails to help rebuild the soul (Thank you people behind me singing some Christian rock...I'm not a believer, but that doesn't mean it's not good music)
• I miss summer camp
• I wish you were here with me, right now

May 24, 2005

jMinder 1.0

I've had a little pet project for the last few days. It was inspired by the needs of 2 people. First, in the past E has talked about having some sort of system that automatically reminds him of events that he preprograms. Now, my system tries to fulfill this need, but does so only by sending emails. I think E would prefer a system that sends him a phone call or text message or something like that...which was a bit out of my scope.

My other inspiration was S, who often talks of a high school teacher of his who made the students write letters to themselves at the end of the school year. The teacher then sent out the letter 5 years later for the students to read. I've done this before as well, and it's an awesome feeling to read your 'former self'...

So, without further ado, I present jMinder. You write a message and put your email address and a date to be sent, then on that date that email address will get the message. Cool huh? Write your future self a letter, it'll be fun (just don't change your email address!). Try it out...

May 23, 2005

Cause all you really need are a few good friends

Does music ever just speak to you? It did to me.

The Format is a new favorite band. It took a couple listens, but I'm digging them now...thanks to P for the recommendation.

Boo, Apple, Boo!

Yes, I am affected by this.

May 22, 2005

I need better internet access...

It's starting to affect me in ways I never expected. I continually think about what I would do right now if I had internet access. Often it's "I'd blog about that" or "I'd check my email" or "I'd read my blogs," etc. Anyway, soon enough I'll have a bed in a house with wireless...all I need to work on is the bed part.

On that note, anybody have any opinions on air mattresses? Check these out, tell me what you think:

Air-O-Bed
Aero Bed

You know what? I'm gonna buy the aerobed...thanks for helping with that decision. It's about to sell out, so I'm gonna jump on it. I don't want to sleep on somebody's used mattress...so the health of my back may need to suffer...plus now I'll always have an air mattress for visitors!

Ok, I need to grab some food. I was listening to this show on NPR this afternoon about chow-hunting. To do this, you go around a city and find a good place to eat. Just to make it clear, the actual activity is finding the place to eat. There are a number of unspoken rules, I believe...like you can only go to local restaurants & you should talk to people on the street for advice...I think P & myself are gonna try this out. It sounded like so much fun. Made me really hungry. I'm gonna grab food!

I shall update again soon, when I have regular internet access...

May 18, 2005

Welcome to Intuit, Josh!

Welcome to Intuit, Josh!
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

Just got home from my third day at Intuit. The first day experience was pretty cool...check out the photos of my well-decorated cubicle. The people in my group seem cool, and there are likely a number of opportunities here to make taxes a less taxing situation all around. I'll say more as time goes on, without giving away secrets, so you can all track my experiences here. For now, I'm tired, so I'll shut up.

Internet access has been weak lately, I can't get it at my hotel, and I am yet to blog at work (I wonder if I'm allowed...). Sorry for being infrequent. Hopefully soon I'll be able to stop apologizing and just start posting. Maybe when I'm all moved in...

I've made it back to La Jolla

Josh on The Cliffs in LJ
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

Life is funny sometimes, in a fitting way. It seems that I nearly always end up where I want to be, despite taking relatively awkward, indirect paths in order to get there. This blog entry will describe two cases in point...who knows where I'll end up next...

From CE to CS to the other CS and back to CS again
In my senior year of high school I decided that I wanted to work with computers. I had always liked science, especially biology and sometimes enjoyed history, but for some reason the machines that I worked with every day excited me beyond the likes of all of my other fields of study. I decided that I would be a Computer Engineer. This was mainly because it had the word Computer in it, and I didn't know the difference between Computer Engineering and Computer Science. I picked Engineering basically on a whim.

Skip to the Fall Quarter of my Freshman year of college. I decided to take CS 8a, an Intro to Computer Science class, where they weeded out the brave from the weak. Turned out I was weak. The whole idea of a "for" loop was beyond me. Not to mention "if," "else," and "boolean," and "arrays." I dropped the class, vowing to take the accelerated version the next quarter, while trying to catch up on my own. By the time the third week of Winter Quarter came around, I was finished with the idea of passing a Computer Science class. Again, I was lost. I just didn't get this stuff. I dropped the class again, and decided to take a class in Cognitive Science (the other CS), which later became the topic in which I majored. I ended up taking a number of "lightweight" CS classes as I progressed toward my CogSci degree, eventually becoming a novice-moderate programmer as an Undergrad.

Cut to today. I just finished my first year toward a Master's degree in Informatics. You better believe there's a whole lot of Computer Science that needs to be understood in order to succeed in this field. If I took that intro to Computer Science class today, I would easily get a top grade in the class. I find that really interesting. Life sometimes runs in loops that you wouldn't expect. Today I'm working with computers every day, exactly as I had planned in High School...I guess the path of least resistance really does work sometimes...

From San Diego to Indiana and Back
I remember talking to a recruiter from Intuit at one of the UCSD Job Fairs my Senior year of college. "What programming languages do you know?" the woman asked. I bobbled the question around, and tried to sell my CogSci degree, but I knew it just wasn't working. Intuit would have been great because I would have been able to stay in SD, and with a name like that, then there must be some HCI and CogSci related jobs there, right? But nay, it seemed that they were dead set on hiring coders that day. None of my other job prospects turned up with a positive note, so I decided to go to graduate school.

Where did I end up next? Indiana, of all places. That was the school I applied to on a whim, but for some reason I saw the best opportunity there. After my first year there, I can say that I am extremely happy with my choice.

But now the story becomes circular, yet again. Cut to me in my new bedroom in La Jolla. I just got off from my third day of work...at Intuit. Had I not gone to Indiana, I would not have this job, I guarantee that. Again, I have ended up where I want to be, but the path has been crooked as a politician.

Sometimes you just gotta thank your lucky stars. Life works itself out if you just let it. I guess my experiences thus far are a perfect example of that...

May 15, 2005

I feel good and chafed

This morning's run was a rousing 20-miler, the longest I have ever run. The first 10 miles were quite amazing. I was so surprised at how easy that half of the run went. I hit the 10 mile turn-around point and was feeling really really good. Then I kept going and around mile 15 or 16 my left leg just died. Imagine 50 pounds of bricks tied to one leg...that's how it felt. Hopefully my continued training as well as a higher salt intake before long runs will help remedy the problem.

I hope not to offend my readership with too much information, as I know I have done before, but when I got home I realized that the long run chafed the hell out of my skin. I think I forgot how different it is to run in really hot weather. I trained my body to adapt to the cold, and today I had to open up all the pores that went and forgot how to sweat. For those of you who aren't already grossed out, I have three words to help you clearly understand my pain: bloody nipples, literally.

I "found" a new blog today, and it has inspired me to revisit my own online journal more frequently. I have been neglecting this blog, and I'm sorry for that. I have so much to say. I've been thinking, experiencing, planning, preparing, moving, reading, writing, creating, and on and on. So, from here on I'll make a better effort to update the blog, if not for your sake, then for my own want/need to keep a good record of the events in my life :-) Oh, and the pictures will continue.

Until next time, have a wonderful weekend.

May 11, 2005

Quick Roadtrip Update

This will be a quick one! I woke up in Colorado Springs and now I'm in Boulder, waiting for S to finish a business call. This evening we will reach Grand Junction, CO and take in some rest, then tomorrow we'll make the long trek to Las Vegas. We had previously planned to stay in St. George, UT, but we're gonna go for the gusto and have some fun in Sin City.

Ok, gotta run. (BTW, happy 150th blog entry to me...)

May 09, 2005

We're not in Kansas anymore...

Josh & Sarthak check out a field of wheat in Kansas
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

S and I have been roadtripping it from Bloomington to our current location, Denver, for the last few days. On the first day we made it from Bloomington to St. Louis and then to Kansas City, MO.

Once we made it to Kansas City, S and I scoured the entire city for a Chipotle restaurant...and finally found one. It was somewhat surreal to sit in Chipotle with S as lightening and thunder flashed the streets with light every few minutes. But still, the burritos were good.

Yesterday we drove completely across the great state of Kansas, which turns out to be really really really long and really really really flat and really really really, dare I say it, boring. The above photo gives a glimpse of what we saw throughout the entire state. What a long day.

We're in Denver now, which has been cool so far. Last night we ate at Maggiano's, an Italian restaurant that offers a 5 course all-you-can-eat meal. Needless to say, I am still completely stuffed 12 hours later. Today we'll do some touring and relaxing, and hopefully my stomach will feel light enough to squeeze a run in.

Ok, it's time to start the day. I'll try to blog again soon, but no promises...I don't know when I'll have internet access again!

Josh touching the arch in St. Louis

Josh touching the arch in St. Louis
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

Wow, I owe some blog posts from waaay back. A lot has happened since the last time I posted, but for now, just a picture...maybe more.

Here I am *touching* the Arch in St. Louis. Sarthak and I stopped through here on our road trip from Bloomington to LA. It was good times!

May 02, 2005

To Blog or Not to Blog

Wow, check me out. I've fallen off the horse. Haven't blogged in a week...that's the longest I've gone since starting, I think. Sorry about that. I probably shouldn't expect people to read Notta Blog if I don't do some updates...unless you use some sort of RSS Feed Aggregator, which I highly recommend.

It's that finals time of year. The year went by so fast. I finished my Cognitive Ergonomics class last Wednesday with a smashing 45 minute presentation. Tomorrow I've got a presentation about Technophiles, the group I studied for my Human-Computer Interaction Design II class, then that'll be the 2nd of 3 classes out of the way. On Tuesday I've got a project due in my Prototyping class, which I'd say i'm roughly 20% done with. After turning in the project on Tuesday I'll proctor an exam, then do some grading, then I'll call it a school year. Nearly halfway done with my Master's degree...that's a bit incomprehensible...

Sarthak's coming on Wednesday evening, and I think he should update his blog before doing so ;-) We'll be driving from Bloomington to LA, which should be fun fun fun, then I'll head to San Diego where I'll be living with Puneet, who should also update his blog. I start my internship on the 16th of May, working with Intuit and redesigning TurboTax. More on that in the coming weeks.

This entry is beginning to look more like a book report than anything else...boring. I'll move on.

I've been to Chipotle 3 times in the last 5 days. A brand new one just opened in Bloomington, and I guess I had been missing it more than I thought. I really enjoy Chipotle, but I think I'll refrain from eating there until I get back to SD. There's a great place here called Laughing Planet, a local burrito place that puts cool stuff in their burritos. It's a little more pricey than Chipotle, but it's nice to support a local business...plus they've got many more options as far as what they put in the burritos...sometimes it just feels good to eat some broccoli.

Oh my, I've got so much more to say...but I need to stop and sleep. That was just a taste of all the news I have for you all. Life's been especially interesting lately, and I promise I'll catch you all up on more details just as soon as I have the time.

April 24, 2005

Plucking My Email Heartstrings

I was inspired the other day into a line of thought that has not been able to leave my head. I'll try to explain what I mean, but I'm still in the process of trying to make sense of it myself. Hopefully writing this entry will help.

I communicate with so many people every day in so many different ways. You do too. We talk, that's a no brainer. Then there are hand, body, and facial gestures, which are so subconscious that we never notice them happening, and couldn't stop them if we tried. These are implicit, but there are numerous explicit communication tools as well, telephone, fax machines, instant messaging, and, of course, email. I often rail against email because it takes so much time away from other aspects of my life, but the truth is that I love it. That's right, I love Email.

Ok, that statement needs some clarification. I love the right kind of email. I love the email that you get from somebody that you know, or somebody that you are getting to know, or somebody that you love, or somebody that loves you. I love juicy Emails, chock full of information. I love reading and rereading and even rerereading a really good email.

It's always amazing to me how good reading a nice long email can make me feel. I sometimes go back to old correspondences and read through the conversations...many times in hopes of finding some sliver of a detail that I missed before. Even when I come up empty-handed, it still feels nice.

So as not to seem totally self-indulgent, I should note that I love writing emails too. Sometimes I'll just write and write and write and hope that the other person is actually interested in what I'm saying.

I love sneaking little secrets between the words. It's like a tiny little inside joke, but giving the receiver a chance to 'get it.' Of course, it's also nice to be able to stick shared secrets between the words as well.

Despite all its other failures I'm here to advocate email, at least for this evening. Here's an assignment, dear reader: Write a good email to someone you love, or even just like a whole lot, tonight. Be passionate, be secretive, be tricky. But at the same time, don't think twice about it. Just be yourself. The other person is sure to enjoy the simple gift.

If you're the lucky receiver of a good email tonight, don't forget to reread it. Then rereread it. Then read it again tomorrow. You won't regret it, I promise.

April 23, 2005

My South Park Character

southpark
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

Don't ask how I happened upon this widget, or why I'm wasting precious time there, but it is interesting to say the least. I've always kind of liked the South Park tv show, but never found myself clicking all the way up to Comedy Central in order to get my fix. Nonetheless, it was interesting to see myself as a character on the show. You should try it for yourself. Creativity is fun.

April 22, 2005

That feeling

It happened today, for the first time in a long time. The feeling is inexplicable. Perfect. Amazing. I cannot realistically portray what I mean, but I'll try. Have you ever been with a group of people, doing some sort of work, when all of a sudden everything just sort of blurs into slow motion, and all around you is the haze of perfect flow? Everyone is on the same page, all parties are thinking the same thoughts, everybody believes strongly in the cause, and you're working in sync toward your goal. That happened this evening. It was brief, and my teammates may not have noticed, but *that feeling* was most definitely there for me.

*That feeling* is the reason I have decided to dedicate this portion of my life to Human-Computer Interaction. I do a ton of group work, and during all of this work I'm in search of these perfect little moments. Sometimes I try to steal them, but that never works. That feeling hits when I least expect it. I remember the first time. It was 3rd year of college and I was in a Cognitive Engineering class. I remember sitting in a CogSci lab with my 6 group members staring at a huge Affinity Diagram doing some concept creation for our project, "PictureThis." We were on fire. It was amazing. Concepts were flowing from this group like I had never seen. One person would suggest a feasible, but boring idea and the next person would add an element that just made it work perfectly. Another person would shout out an idea that was just horribly off base, and the next person would take a piece of that idea and turn it into something that just seemed to fit in our solution. Since that moment I have known that I wanted to delve deeper into the world of HCI.

I am absolutely sure these moments of perfection exist in fields other than HCI, but they have rarely occured to me. When I ran the ropes course at my childhood summer camp, a few situations were simply perfect. I remember driving around in my first car that were perfect, but those were generally alone. In HCI, moments where I have *that feeling* are few, but they are more often than in other fields. Perhaps there is a field where I can come into contact with this feeling of perfection more often...but for now, I am quite happy with my momentary feelings of bliss.

April 18, 2005

Allergies effing suck

Had my first bad allergy day :-( I knew it was soon approaching that time of year and have had random sneezes the last few days, but this afternoon and evening has been horrific. The meds I'm on (clarinex, claritin, and sudafed) are not helping one bit, and I just feel like crap. I forgot how much energy a single allergy attack takes from you. I took a nap this afternoon with the hope that when I woke up it would all be gone, but it was not to be. I'll go to bed relatively early this evening to help my weary body, but with my luck it'll all be the same tomorrow.

They definitely call this town Bloomington for a reason: everything blooms at the same time. It's beautiful, but polleny. I saw the most beautiful tulips yesterday while on my run...a bright red and yellow mix out front of a local church. Tulips are everywhere here, which isn't the case in the places I've lived in California. Tulips are certainly my favorite flower...but I can't really explain why. I just like them a whole lot. I'll try to take some pictures of them and give you all a look at them.

Speaking of my run...yesterday was a 14 miler. They're getting longer and longer. I really feel like I've accomplished something after a long run like that, unfortunately it knocks me out for pretty much the whole day. I'm feeling pretty confident about this marathon, which is great news. The 14 miles was definitely do-able, and I think with people cheering me on the whole way I can do another 12.2. I won't jump to conclusions though, cause that may be dangerous. BTW, I don't know if I've said it before, but everyone is invited to the marathon. Come out and support me and the thousands of other runners, or feel free to just do it from afar. :-)

Have I told you that I sing to myself in French when I run? Well I do. It's an old habit that I've never kicked. When I'm really tired on a run, I'll generally start thinking en Francais, and soonafter that the songs start to flow. The grammar is surely off, and the songs are simply American translations, but it's fun for me. It's always so surprising how much of my French vocabulary I have retained...I bet it would be much better if I started studying the language a few years earlier. Now it's all been shoved to the tired running area of my brain instead of the vital language processing areas. Que sera, sera. (What will be, will be.)

In other news, the "Ice Man" is coming out to Bloomington in a few weeks. I'm excited about this for a multitude of reasons. First, hanging with S is always a good time. Second, I'm gonna give him a chance to see the midwest, a place which he prejudges as bad...which is truly not the case. Third, we're gonna have Indian food, and I'll get to see if it meets his standards (S was a major influence in my initial Indian food experiences). Fourth, we're driving across the country together, which will surely be a blast. And fifth, S will learn to drive a manual transmission, a skill that I enjoy teaching. I think S will especially appreciate the structured nature in which I have enumerated the reasons for my excitement at his visit.

Ok, bedtime for me. Gooo night.

April 14, 2005

I've passed the goal!

Training for the Marathon
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

Many thanks are required this evening...after an evening of tabulations, I can announce that I've passed my fundraising minimum goal for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team In Training. That means I can run the Rock 'n Roll Marathon on June 5 without owing any money. Great news for a starving student like me. :-) Thanks to all those who contributed, as well as all of you who have been cheering me on all the way. I should note that I'm still collecting donations if you'd like to help the LLS. To donate, click here.

Less than 2 months to race day, and I'm completely in awe of the generosity of my friends and family. Thank you all so much. Now it's up to me to run a race.

Ain't no time like the present

Had a big presentation today, err...yesterday. It was supposed to be forty minutes long, but I ran over the hour mark. Good stuff. Lots of questions by the professor and students in the class, and I think I did a good job answering them. At one point it even became comfortable to be up in front of the class. I always get so worked up about presentations. Something about them just makes me extremely nervous. Nerves eventually waned, I just needed to be up there for long enough.

Went on to have a relaxing and interesting evening. Let's just say my crepe-making skillz can use some work. I needed a night of fun, though...since I've been tearing my hair out with work lately. The fun doesn't stop...I've still got more catching up to do tomorrow. Grading + wiki + National Center on Accessibility. Not to mention the fact that I haven't run in days. 14 miler coming up Saturday. I'll try to do 5 tomorrow if I manage to wake up.

It's been a while since I really sat and thought about life. I jot down notes here at Notta Blog, but they're (semi)coherent and public, which leads to the painting of beautiful pictures. I need a forum for me, myself, and I...if there's time for that. Perhaps I'll simply keep notes in my head...

April 12, 2005

CHI 2005 Pictures

Check out my pictures from CHI...highlights to be flickr'ed soon.

Josh's Pictures

April 10, 2005

Coming Home from CHI

me & a stone animal
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

I'm in the Portland Airport right now. PDX, for those who are interested. This is the best free wifi I've experienced in a long long time...go Portland airport.

The big trip is coming to an end...we're flying from Portland to Atlanta to Indianapolis. We'll be back by 8am...redeyes are fun, or not.

This trip has been wonderful. Portland is a great city. The folks from IU have been awesome as well. Team mPath won, but really we all did.

I'd like to take an opportunity to thank my Echoes teammates, J & S. They've been great...allowing me to joinup in the last minute...trusting me with important parts of their "baby"...and doing a ton of work to move the team forward. It's been a great journey, guys, thanks for the good times.

I'm gonna bend one of the official rules of Notta Blog...I'm writing horribly this evening (the admission is the rule bending), so I'm just gonna quit.

I'll catch you all on the flipside. Time to board a plane.

April 06, 2005

Welcome to CHI, it's your Birthday!

IMG_4559
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

I feel the need, the need to blog. It's been itching at my soul for the last few days now...so here goes.

If you have called, emailed, or otherwise tried to contact me, I'm sorry for being out of contact. Over the next few days I'll do my part to catch up. For now, hopefully this note will tide you over.

Birthday was fun and stressful. We had a poster presentation for the Student Design Competition. 25 teams entered the competition, 11 were invited to the conference, and 4 moved on to the next round. Unfortunately, my team did not make it to the final round. It's all good though, because that allowed me and the others who did not move on to have some fun! Team mPath from IU did move on, and I'd like to wish them the best of luck in their final presentation, which is to take place in less than an hour.

Last night we went to the convention's reception party, which started with a procession through the streets of Portland. Picture loud drums and a couple hundred Human-Computer Interactionists dancing behind them. That was us. Crazy. Weird. Good times. :-) The party was also fun, and I saw some people from my old days at UCSD. Danced on a bouncing dance floor, which was relatively scary. The wood was old and thin, so it bounced as people danced. Basically just had to bob my head, because the floor took care of the rest ;-)

Tonight we're gonna hit up the Google, Microsoft, and perhaps SAP party.

Ok, that's the short update. Thanks for the birthday wishes. You'll hear from me again soon.

April 02, 2005

An inordinate amount of underwear

Too much underwear!
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

So I'm packing for my CHI trip and I have realized that I will have to pack an inordinate amount of underwear. It's crazy, but not completely my fault. See, while in Portland I'll continue to run, which means that I'll be wearing multiple pairs of underwear in the same day. Plus I have to bring extra shirts to run in, and extra socks...

Maybe I share too much with my readership...but that's a good thing, I think. I ran 9.2 miles this morning...so I may be a bit delirious. Not to mention the fact that I got like 5 hours of sleep last night. Good warm-up I guess, it's not like I'll be sleeping at the conference.

BTW, I have been invited to 2 parties so far at CHI, one thrown by Google and the other Yahoo! They're at the same time, of course. This has lead to some rather serious introspection about which company I have more allegiance to...we'll see which way I go, if at all.

BTW2, for all those who like to keep tabs on my sister: she's still brilliant. Acceptances at UCLA and Berkeley...ooh I am jealous! Tami is stellar. :-)

Ok...back to packing.

March 27, 2005

Cognitive Science

A few weeks ago I wrote a little entry for a class that explains my undergraduate major, Cognitive Science, in a little more detail than I normally have time (or eloquence) to explain it in. It's up on my class wiki, which means that I no longer have the right to say that I own it, but I will claim that I wrote the first pass. For all of you who ever wondered what exactly Cognitive Science is, I give to you this essay, which, at least (hopefully), will describe the parties invested in the field in clear, concise terms.

Cognitive Science by the Informatics 590 Course of Fall 2005

Anti-Tweets

IMG_4508
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

Remember when I wrote about the beautiful sound of all those birds tweeting? Well, those tweeters have been reminding me of the downside. 2 days in a row I've come to my car only to find that birds have pooed all over it. What's up with that? Come on birds, don't make me take back the nice things I said about you.

Chubby chubby chipmunk

IMG_4507
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

This is me, Josh, as of yesterday afternoon. I must add that this is not how I normally look. Well, from the nose up, I have no excuses ;-), but everything below is just a mess. My cheeks are huge HuGe HUGE! I've been applying ice as necessary, and it helps with the swelling, but I still feel like a chubby chubby chipmunk. (It has struck me that this is, in fact, what I might look like if I were 20-30 pounds overweight...which I'll be keeping in mind.)

Now I have to refocus my emphasis back on my schooling...this break has been longer than I was expecting. I needed to be doing so much more work...but that's just not possible when the pain medication forced me to sleep for 6 hours in the middle of the day! This week is going to be absolute hell because of catch up...but at least it will end with a trip to Portland, Oregon for CHI 2005, which will be a blast for sure.

I think the rest of this semester will go by really fast, but when I think of all the stuff I'll have to do before then, I cringe. There is so much on my mind I could pop, but I have to get to work, maybe I'll update again tonight after getting my bearings straight...for now, enjoy the picture :-)

March 24, 2005

Wisdom Teeth

IMG_4506
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

So my wisdom teeth were removed this morning. I was a bit nervous beforehand, because the oral surgeon had never met me, and he didn't want my x-rays before I came in this morning.

In the end, the surgery only took 30 minutes or so to remove 3 teeth. Really really fast. The anesthesia stopped working about two hours after the surgery, which meant I couldn't feel the entire bottom of my face...

After the drugs wore off, I was in pain. Today has been so weird because of this...i've eaten half a bowl of mashed potatoes, as well as half a bowl of chocolate pudding (the only kinda of chocolate I like). Needless to say, I'm hungry, but eating is just so painful.

I've also been really really tired. I slept for about 6 hours or so this afternoon, and I'm still really tired. I bet it's the drugs. I'm on some kind of vicodin alternative, and i'm not really a big fan. "Meperidine" mildly retards the on set of pain, but it makes me tired, cranky, and even a little bit nausious.

Anyway, I'm tired...I'll give more updates later, when I'm semi-coherent.

March 20, 2005

What a great weekend!

This was a fantastic weekend. Nothing about it was extremely extreme, but overall it was just a Zenful experience...if you know what I mean. Yesterday I wrote most of a paper and then watched 1984...which is a pretty strange movie. I've tried to read the book damn near a million times, but never get past page 50, the make-it-or-break-it page in most books. The movie had some gratuitous nudity scenes, which I found relatively disturbing. Showing naked women in your movie will not improve the quality of the flick, if you ask me. Maybe it was to prove a point or something about the woman expressing herself in a world that holds her and all others down...but still, she could have worn neon.

Today was a really productive day. I got a lot of stuff that I've been needing to do done or started or thought about. My ToDo list just sort of filled itself out and things just got done. I can't remember the last time that happened. It seems that I'm too busy at meetings and class and doing inconsequential work to get anything substantial done. The building was empty for most of the day today, so I got a chance to get some deep thinking done.

The next few days are going to be a mess. My schedule is chock full o' goodness tomorrow...then my wisdom teeth will be removed on Thursday. I'll give a full report on the week later. For now it's bedtime...

March 17, 2005

23rd BDay Hint, Hints: Exercise Accessories Edition

iPod Shuffle Armband - $29

Some new Running Shoes. I prefer New Balance. Size 10.5 2E. 700 series or higher, please (Yes, quality is important :-)

Springtime running clothes. I generally wear a Medium for shirts, and I'm a 32 waist.

Car bike rack (on Hyundai website) - $109 (I'll need to transport my bike to SD somehow...or perhaps I could just buy a new one, again, when I get there. I wonder if it would be feasible to just tie it to the roof rack?)

Tweets

I just woke up to a fantastic sound. Directly outside my window there must be 10-20 birds chirping away, chit chatting with one another, just catching up on times past. Now for many of you out there, hearing birds tweet is probably not a momentous event. In normal circumstances, I would say the same thing, however I haven't heard a bunch of birds chirping for months. See, in cold locations, birds fly south for the winter. I didn't even notice, but I began to miss the sounds of the birds. The best thing I can infer from this occurence is that the weather can only get warmer...and that's exciting. I'm expecting 70s and sunny every day after spring break ;-)

March 16, 2005

timbuk2

So, my birthday's coming up. April 5, just in case you didn't realize. I'll be adding new Hint, Hints periodically. Do with them what you will.

Starting here with Timbuk2 Messenger bags:

Gift cards work - you pick the price

Quilted Laptop Sleeve - $30

Laptop Grip Sleeve - $50

And of course, a messenger bag works too.

March 15, 2005

A trip to Caveat Emptor

selleck
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

Went to Caveat Emptor with A this afternoon. Caveat Emptor is a local used book store, the name latin for something like "the buyer is to decide the worth of an object they are to buy" (gotta love a healthy vocabulary). This place was total information overload...books all over the place: the floor, shelves, ceiling, and even in a bunch of tiny little rooms. Pretty cool store. It was easy to spend a few hours there. You may notice from the above picture that I picked up a book on Tom Selleck. It made me think of S in SD because of her love of cheezy old movies (and therefore cheezy old actors), so she'll get the copy.

Tom Selleck is a hairy hairy man. Check out that picture. He surely groomed the hair to be that fluffy...but I'm sure the back was clean-cut. Man am I glad hairyness isn't in...I'd be out. Fortunately (or unfortunately for you 80s hairy man lovers), my hair just doesn't grow like old Tom's...but we're verging on TMI at this point.

A picked up a copy of a book about the Donald, aptly titled Trump. The book was from Trump's pre-Apprentice days...so one could say it's a classic. After seeing this purchase, I didn't quite feel so alone in my lame biography purchase ;-)

In other news, I've sent out a bunch of snail-mail letters to a bunch of people on my "potential donors" list. Expect a letter in the next few days if you're a close friend or family member and have not donated yet. Please be generous, it's a great cause!

I'm back full-on running again, which is great news. Ran 3 miles this morning, and it felt alright. I definitely lost some oomph in my 10 or so days off. It's just so easy to get out of shape. I wish endurance was easier to maintain...but I guess that would break the "no pain, no gain" rule. Silly rules.

Received some great news today: I managed to get an internship for the summer! Woohoo! Go me. I'm gonna continue to keep the company name on the downlow...not sure what the blogging policy is. Shoot me an email if you think you're worthy of more info about this ;-)

Ok, I'm off to read about Tom Selleck...:-P

March 14, 2005

Proud Father of a beautiful...

IMG_4480
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

Apple Powerbook. That's right, I've made the switch. I'm writing my first blog entry from the new machine. It's always exciting to get a new computer, but this has been especially interesting because I've had to learn a whole new operating system, which hasn't been as much of a chore as I had originally expected.

Downsides:

• The keyboard is of lower quality than my IBM Thinkpad.
• I really miss the IBM Trackpoint...it was so much easier to use than a trackpad.
• Screen size is smaller on this machine
• There is no 'Delete' key! Only backspace...

Upsides:

• Everything about this machine is beautiful -> The display, operating system, software, entire package...
• Battery life is much better than expected (at 4.5 hours)
• I find myself focused on the details of the things I work on...rather than just getting things to work.
• Perl and Python are preinstalled...so I can program easily
• The system is UNIX based, so I can navigate through and manipulate all my files easily!
• There are other things that I'm not thinking of...

The switch has been easy thus far. I've been very impressed with the design of this system. It's been able to do everything I've asked, which generally was not the case with my Windows system...I may be a Mac Lifer...

March 09, 2005

Blog Reader Location Map

Blog Reader Location Map
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

Just checked my Blog site's statistics and noticed that my readership on the West Coast has become the most popular readership group! Up to now, the Eastern Time Zone (where I am currently located) was the leader. I'm not too sure how this has happened, but it's cool with me...

Overall readership numbers are also up somewhat, which is exciting. Notta Blog averages 11 readers each day. To track your Blog or site's statistics, go to SiteMeter.

March 06, 2005

Letter Writing

I've been doing a lot of work with senior citizens in the past 4-5 months. When I'm not reading about them, then I'm either talking to them, designing for them, or writing about them. I just have so much to learn from and about them. A big idea that was pointed out to me by a senior last week was that letter writing is a dying art. Many might disagree with this idea. After all, many people write upwards of 50 emails a day!

Email is not the same, I would argue. There is a difference between passing someone a quick outline of what is going on and writing a complete story that paints a picture of your life at this moment. Computers have a way of sucking the life out life. Emails turn into souped-up bullet point outlines, not coherent, well written prose. We should all work on our letter writing. Call me a luddite, but I don't think losing this ability is something we want to do as a culture. One day we'll wake up and realize our children cannot read (because they're too busy watching TV or scanning websites) or write (because they're too busy shooting off an email or making a PowerPoint presentation).

To help curb the downfall of writing, I'm starting a new initiative. I will write at least one paper letter each week. If I have your address, perhaps you'll be one of my recipients...but I probably don't have your address. Send me an email (jevnin at gmail dot com) and I'll put your address on my list so I can send a letter.

I wish I could run

Worked out today, but running was not part of the equation. It's nice to know that I've trained my body enough to feel like running is definitely part of the routine, and when I don't do it I feel bad. Today was an absolutely beautiful day. Perfect running weather. It was a little windy, which is good because it keeps you cool, but otherwise it was a balmy 50 degrees, warm in comparison with 30, the normal temp these days. A ton of people were out jogging and playing basketball, and I wish I could have joined them. But the doctor said a week off, so a week off it is. I did my weight training instead, which is a nice switch. I'll be sore in the morning, but surely it'll feel good.

March 04, 2005

My Right Ankle (Update)

Just returned from the IU Health Center. I decided my ankle pain was nagging me enough to warrant a trip to the doctor. They took my temperature and blood pressure, and those seemed to be fine, offering no clues as to the cause of my ankle pain. Then the doctor brought me into his room and played with my foot asking the all-important question, "Does this hurt?" Of course, since I was being proactive in getting this problem fixed, my body decided to turn off the Nociceptors in my foot. (BTW, Nociceptors are the body's receptors which are responsible for a good amount of muscle, bone, and skin pain. Remove these and your pain sensations would go away! But that would be a very bad thing...) So my ankle wasn't hurting today, and nothing the doctor did could cause it to hurt more. Because of this and other reasons, the doctor decided that whatever is going on in my ankle is not serious, it just needs a little rest. He ordered me off the pavement for 1 week, then if the ankle still hurts after that I am to go back to him.

I must say, I was preparing for the worst with this doctor visit. My unprofessional diagnosis was that I had a stress fracture, which may well still be the case. Last night I was very sad and worried that my marathon training would be finished. I don't believe this is the case anymore. I've learned that as an athlete you really have to listen to what your body is trying to tell you. Slight pains can turn into major ones if you don't watch out, and major pains may just go away if you give them a chance to heal. I'll trust my body and give it some rest...it will be worth it on race day!

Side note:
When I signed in at the health center this morning, the woman I talked to wasn't very talkative. Then I realized that the woman in the booth next to her was crying...and by crying I mean bawling. It really freaked me out, and made it difficult to answer questions like, "What is your address?" and "How do you spell your last name?" Thinking about it in retrospect, this would be a good psychological experiment...but I really wonder what she could have been crying about...

March 02, 2005

Whirlwind Tour of SD

Talk about a whirlwind tour of San Diego...I was back in the land of my Alma Mater for the last day and a half. It was nice to get back, as brief as it was. It's hard to remember how great the weather is there. Those who live there now: you don't know how lucky you have it.

In the last 2 days I've slept almost 6 hours. I'm gone at this point, to the point of oblivion. I'm not sure I could keep up if I had a job that required me to travel like this. Amazingly, sitting on an airplane for hours at a time day after day is rather gruelling. If they had the internet up there I think things would be much better. Someday soon that'll surely be the case.

Had a set of interviews with a company that shall still remain nameless. I think they went well. I have a new theory about interviews. It's not earth shattering, but I think it is important: Just Be Yourself. If a company doesn't want you to work for them after you've shown them an honest picture of who you are and given them an array of your strengths, then you probably don't want to be working there. I am dead-set on working for a company in which I can be respected by those who preside over my work, and which allows me to think creatively about problems I am interested in. If a company can't offer me that, then I'm out.

I must be careful, however, when creating silly theories about this topic. I must take into account the fact that I am only 22 years old, and have no one really depending on me for sustainance. I have the ability to walk in to a job interview and be myself because there is (relatively) no pressure on my back. Of course, I have to eat and the only way to do that is to have a job, but it's not like I'm raising children at this point. Those who are in that sort of position surely have to act especially carefully in a job interview, because it is more likely that they will not be able to support dependants without the job...anyway, enough musings on this topic.

Shout outs go to Puneet, Suzanna, Nava, and Fuad, for managing to make time to hang out with me on my tight schedule. Special shout outs go to the Ice Man, Sarthak, for coming all the way to SD from the OC just to see little old me...oh yeah, and he risked his job in order to do it.

I've got some sleep to catch up on...piece out.

February 28, 2005

My Right Ankle

My ankle hurts. Badly. It's been in pain all day. About a mile into my 3 mile run this morning it started to be a touch painful, but I just ran through the pain. Big mistake. I won't be doing that again. I've been limping all day, and even a bit depressed about the idea that I may have some sort of injury. I'm taking the next 2 days off, which was planned, but we'll see how I feel on Thursday as to whether I run or just do some other exercise that day.

I'm headed to San Diego tomorrow morning for a job interview. Should be a good time. It's with a really cool company that does work that really has a chance to affect people on a daily basis. I keep hearing the question, "What do you want to do in the field of HCI?" My answer has stayed the same throughout this year: I want to design things that really matter to people. I want to affect people on a daily basis in a positive way by creating transparent, useful products. If people use things I design without knowing they've just used something that was labored over for weeks, then I'll be happy. Maybe I'm an idealist (no, I'm definitely an idealist).

I'm *really* excited about sushi and late night mexican food. That stuff is just second rate here in Indiana. Oh...I can't wait. The weather there will also beat the weather here, hands down.

I'm listening to a new band this evening...The Killers. I really like them. They're kinda like Hot Hot Heat, but more rhythmic and more poppy. I'm not sure I like the name, but other than that I'm enjoying them...

Ok, time to pack. Wish me luck!

February 27, 2005

Gmail's back

Gmail must have heard me blogging...as soon as I finished my last post I checked Gmail and found that it's back up...karma.

down with gmail

Simply unacceptible. That's just about all I have to say about that. Let me explain. Gmail has been down all morning. ALL MORNING. I use Gmail to access just about all of my email, and so I have had no access to my email all morning. Now, I realize that it's Sunday, and it's still early in the morning in California (where Google is based), but still. Are there not backups in place? Was this an expected failure period? Is there somewhere I can go to figure out why I can't access my email? Is there tech support for me to contact? Could I have been warned? Can the error messages tell me something? Anything?

I'll be really honest. I love Gmail when it's working. It is by far the best email client/host combination I have ever used. My only problem is that it often doesn't work. Most of the time it's very temporary, but sometimes (like today) it is not. I realize that the system is still in Beta (being tested), so I shouldn't expect perfection...but I should be able to check my email always.

The kicker to this whole shebang: the only reason I want to use Gmail this morning is so that I can send in an application to work at Google...

February 25, 2005

A tad disappointing

Didn't run today. Bad Josh, bad! In my mind it was justified, however, since it was really cold out, and tomorrow will be 10 degrees warmer and sunny. I would have taken tomorrow off, so I just switched my running days. Should work out well, but this week will be a mess as far as my training schedule goes. Tuesday-Wednesday will be long and grueling, so no running will be done. I'll have to get my yayas out tomorrow, Sunday, and Monday.

By the way, in case you haven't noticed, Josh's Team in Training Adventure is now officially in full effect. The runTracker is working, and runGrapher has been a nice addition. The first round of donation gathering has commenced, and a few donations have trickled in. Thank you so much to those who have contributed! You're helping countless numbers of people with each dollar you donate! The next round of donation gathering will go out in a week or so, so beat the rush, donate now!

In the good news category, I'll be in San Diego for a job interview early next week. Too soon to tell if I'll get an offer, so I'll keep the company nameless. Your guesses are welcome. It will be cool to see some of my SD buddies, and it would be *great* to live there over the summer. In my numerous (read: 4) years as an SD resident, I never had the opportunity to live there over the summer. It's retribution time, at least in my mind. We'll see what the hiring company has to say about that.

Ok, I'll keep it short. Big 6-miler in the morning. Should be a good one.

February 24, 2005

Another Stream of Consciousness

I think I've read just enough to know that it is time to go Mac. I'll be looking into getting an iBook as soon as I get paid back for the trip to Oregon, within the next few days. Anybody want a brand new IBM T42? I would say it's sparkly clean, except for the fact that it's brand new in the box, so I wouldn't know.

What's the difference between Mac and Apple? I've asked this of many, but it doesn't seem that anyone has the answer. My hypothesis is that Mac is the hardware (unless specified otherwise, i.e. Mac OS) and apple is the brand. So software titles are preceded by the word Apple (such as Apple Pages) while the computers themselves are called Macs. Am I right? Perhaps I'll know soon enough.

I'm doing some usability testing today. It should be fun. Designing usability experiments is, or at least can be, very challenging. Sometimes you want to know more than "Is this button placed in the right spot?" or "Does the user understand how to print this document?" We wanted to ask something more like, "Is there sufficient user buy-in for this product?" and "Does the user think this system does things better than in in its analog equivalent?" Hard questions to answer, especially when you've only got 30 minutes to burn and a paper prototype to work with. We did some informal testing last weekend, and it went alright...but I'm still not sure we'll be getting the information we really want.

Running is still going well. I went a whole 4.33 miles yesterday, if you haven't already noticed. It was on a treadmill, and therefore dreadfully boring, but a cold front has moved into town. I'm not down with running in really cold or snowy weather...just don't have the clothes for it.

Did you notice the runGrapher on the left of the screen? It was donated by Erik, and I thank him big time for it. I'll add some more functionality in a bit...but for now it just shows you the relative distances of my last 5 runs. If you can think of some upgrades, let me know and I'll think about adding them in (and actually do so when I get the time).

There are damn near a million books I want to read and projects I want to work on right now. Mostly, I'd like to build a prototype of the software concept a team I was on created in my third year of college. It is used for photo organization, and I think we did an exceptional job, but none of us had programming experience. Now that I know a little bit about Flash, perhaps I can mock it up. Actually, I'll probably be using to help me get to know Flash better, because I'm not as comfortable with it as I would like to be...

Ok, I've gotta get up and get out. Piece.

February 21, 2005

Apple or IBM

So after more than two months, today I received a brand new computer in the mail, direct from IBM. I think I've been a really really good sport in that amount of time, and finally I've received the big payoff...but it leads to a problem. I've been upgraded from my used IBM T40 to a brand new T42...but I'm afraid to open the box. "Well why, Josh? Why?" I'm glad you asked. I've been thinking for the last few months about buying an Apple Laptop...and this just might be my perfect opportunity. If I can sell this computer on eBay, it is likely that I'll be able to afford a nice little iBook, or pay a couple hundred bucks and get a PowerBook. But do I have the gall to do it? I'm not sure.

I don't think I'm afraid of the switch. I've always picked up on computer issues pretty fast, so I'd probably learn how to use a Mac relatively quickly. One problem is that I *loved* my IBM. It was perfect until it died. The keyboard was awesome. The trackpoint rocked. It rarely crashed (for hardware reasons...of course, Windows crashed here and there because it's a crappy OS). It is the perfect size and weight. The T42 will only be better.

I'm afraid of trading for an Apple because it's an unknown. I'm stepping out of my element. I've only heard good stories about Macs...but will they work for my purposes? Will the keyboard feel as crisp? Will I adapt to a one-button mouse? Will the OS allow me to do everything I do in Windows? Will I be able to do more?

Should I get a PowerBook or an iBook? The iBook is so much more cost effective...but I tend to be a power user. Do I pay the extra money? Will it be worth it? Will I be bothered by the fact that I'll have to carry around a "dongle" in order to hook up to an analog projector?

Should I wait until the new OS, Mac OS X "Tiger", comes out in the next few months? Some of the features look awesome.

The minute I cut the tape on the IBM box, the worth of the computer drops a few hundred dollars on eBay...

I'm just so unsure and full of questions. Anybody have answers or advice? I would love both...

February 20, 2005

What a day!

If my worst days are like today, then I think I'm doing just fine. The two effectors: Flat tire on the car & getting locked out of the house. The latter was my fault, the former a freak accident...

Went for a run this early afternoon. I had planned my day perfectly...my run was to be 45 minutes long, giving me just enough time to shower, eat, and make it to school right on time for my 1:30 meeting. I was on my way, about 1/4 mile away from home when all of a sudden my right ankle started giving out. "Crap" was all I could think. I've been working so hard not to injure my knee, then all of a sudden my ankle is in major pain. I walked back to the house, convinced that my pain was due to the fact that I was wearing ankle socks, causing major coldness. As I walked past my car, I realized that the rear passenger tire was completely flat. Upon inspection, I noticed that there was a big metal slab jammed into the top of the tire (foul play?). I went in, put on some longer socks, and headed back out to change the tire, mad that I wouldn't get my full run. I changed the tire (all by myself, there's a first time for everything :-) and headed back out for my run. It was an ok run...though shorter than I would have liked. I'll make up for it tomorrow. Longer socks totally did the trick, still injury free.

When I got back from the run, I turned the door knob only to realize that I was locked out with no cell phone and no one inside. Luckily, I was able to find a way to break in to the house. It was much easier than I would have expected, which is *really really* scary. I was able to shower and eat and get to school only 5 minutes late, which is good considering all the mishaps.

So now I'll have to buy a new spare tire. Big woop. Hopefully it won't be too expensive. I guess it's better to have a tire pop in your driveway than when you're driving on it. The funny thing is that I just filled my tires with air yesterday...could I have messed it up somehow? Who knows...

I think my most recent project is going well. We finished the bulk of our 3-5 page single spaced paper today. From here on it will be rewording and reworking, just to make things sound good (and right).

I've really been thinking about the Contextual Design process lately...it's what I have been bred on. It's in my roots. It just feels right. In every other project I have worked on, I have gone in to the idea generation phase with a relatively blank slate. My designs are creative, but I just have not been at all comfortable with them. After doing Contextual Inquiry and modeling, I feel really comfortable in generating ideas. I feel like I've deserved the right to create human-centered designs. I think it comes down to the fact that I'm a really visual person. If I can look at human behavior, then strip it down into its smallest pieces by way of external representations, then I am more likely to understand the real problems at hand. But maybe I'm just not thinking deeply enough. Perhaps I'm not opening myself up to other lines of thought.

Is it really true that one should play their weaknesses in school? Should I drop the things I know and head blindly into the unknown? Or maybe I can play my strengths and burrow further into the intricacies of cognition and design. Do I go for breadth or depth? I need to answer these questions for myself. All I'm saying is that I never truly realized exactly what it meant to be an HCI/Designer with a Cognitive Science background until I gave my Distributed/External Cognition talk last week. It didn't go well for a few reasons:

1. I had not thoroughly prepared the material. This was due in large part to the fact that I decided to change my topic at the last minute.


2. I did not convincingly make my point. Probably because I'm a bit inexperienced at making presentations.


3. And finally, I think most of the members of the class do not think of design from the angle I do. This is due to the fact that they don't have backgrounds similar to mine. I could have set up the presentation so that it would have been easier for a general audience to decipher...but failed to do so

I'll have to figure out a way to have my cake and eat it too. There must be a way. There's no reason that I shouldn't be able to focus on aspects of cognition while acquiring the breadth of knowledge that I would like to have. I can do it, because "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and dog gone it...people like me."

Ah...Graduate School...

February 17, 2005

I'm erratic

It's been too long since I've written a good blog entry. Sorry about that. Now it's too late for me to promise a good one for this evening, but I'll write a little bit anyway.

Party at our house tomorrow. We're celebrating E's GF, N, being in town. That was far too many abbreviations/acronyms for my liking. "Make Your Own Pizza Night," take 2. It was awesome the first time...great food, great fun. This time Ja, K, and I are going to try to create a Cuban Black Bean Pizza, just like at Avers. Mmmm...it's just so good. Who'da thunk that pesto sauce and black beans would be such an awesome combination for a pizza. Not me. It's delicious. If you're in Bloomington, you're invited (you're invited if you're not in B-Town as well, but it will likely be more difficult for you to get here).

Saw a great thing today. Saw a professor who was worried that his class isn't going as planned. Saw a professor admit to his mistakes. Saw a professor point out that it was also the fault of the students. Saw myself inspired to do great(er) work. Wish I saw more professors that are forward thinking like this. Many teachers/researchers in HCI/Informatics/Related Fields really think they are forward thinkers. Listen, just because you're in this field doesn't make you a forward thinker. In order to claim that title you must be proactively not living in the past. That cannot be said for all in this field. That is all I have to say about that.

Tired, if you couldn't tell. Piece.

February 14, 2005

Valenstine Day

By the way, happy Valenstine (as my sister used to say) Day/Single Awareness Day to all those who are celebrating. :-P

Running is HARD

I went running outdoors this morning. Let me tell you, there is a huge difference between treadmill and road running. I was in major pain throughout my run, and had to stop to walk a number of times. I cannot tell if it's a psychological barrier or if it is actually working different muscles, but I'd probably guess it's a little of both. It probably didn't help that it's slightly rainy and in the mid-40s today. To be honest, the temperature didn't bother me too much, but the weight of my clothes sure did. I need some dry-fit clothes or some other technology that causes the clothing to stay light in the rain and when soaked with sweat.

After the run I drove the course to see how far I ran. 5.3 miles! Wow! That was impressive! If you've been keeping track on the runTracker on the left of the screen, you'll know that I've been running between 2.5 and 3.5 miles per day on the treadmill. I'm pretty pumped, and impressed with my performance today, but I am already really really sore, so I cannot imagine how I'll feel in the morning...

Big presentation tomorrow. I've been preparing for it for a while, but it turns out that I'll be doing a different topic than I had expected, so I'll have some extra work to do this evening...d'oh.

Ohh, we're doing an Experience Prototype in Design Club this afternoon. It's gonna be great!

February 11, 2005

Bye bye, Internet

So I came in to school yesterday morning to have a meeting and get some work done, when I was told that the Internet was down. "Whaaat!?" I said, astonished. The professor I was meeting with had to reschedule the meeting, but his aide was unable to see his schedule, because there was no internet. I decided I would just go back to my office and start up on my work, when I realized it was all on the 'net. Sure, I could load things onto my USB key, but uploading it somewhere always seems more convenient to me for some reason. I was relatively shell-shocked, and surprised that I put myself in a position where I could not do anything because I was completely cut off from all my work (not to mention my main source of entertainment). Luckily, I had grading to do, and the professor requires the students to turn their work in on paper (which I found annoying at first), so I was able to get that done.

The thing that was really astonishing was that work must have stopped all across campus because of this internet interruption. I cannot imagine being one of the technicians trying to restore the system. Their phones must have been ringing off the hook. I'm sure professors were unable to give lectures (because their powerpoints were on the network), and many meetings were unsuccessful.

The repurcussions of losing the internet are severe, as yesterday's "experiment" showed. If that sucker were to be destroyed, we'd all be in some big trouble. But what to do? Do I (and those around me) stop depending on the net? Probably not, but let's just hope it never goes down indefinitely.

The original internet was developed by the U.S. Military in the late 1960s as an information transport system that was not vulnerable to single attacks. That is, it was a network built such that destroying one of its communication nodes would not cut off the entire system. This was obviously a Cold War effort to protect ourselves from devastating atomic bomb attacks. So why did the Internet die at Indiana University yesterday? I thought these computer systems were able to come up with their own work-arounds. I'm just full of questions...perhaps someone can explain this to me...

February 08, 2005

runTracker Additions

Check out the additions that have been made to the runTracker on the left side of the screen! If you're a friend or family member, you'll soon be receiving more information about my marathon training, and the cause that I am supporting, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Even if you're not a member of my family or a friend, feel free to help me out. Click the links under the Team in Training logo to find out more!

In other news...I'm working on a project right now in which I will design a system for gyms or workout facilities to get rid of paper-based organization. It should be fun, and relatively easy, considering all the time I've been spending in the gym lately.

I have a presentation next Tuesday on External Cognition and PowerPoint. I need to get to work on it soon, and perhaps will post the presentation here when it's done.

Design Club is going well...yesterday we outlined an experiment we'll be doing next Monday. We're working on an Experience Prototype for an alarm clock. That means we're going to put some people on our team in the shoes of people who wake up every day, in order to gain insights on how to design a better system. Hopefully it will work out well, but if not, at least we'll have fun in the process.

Back to work...

February 07, 2005

It's Tami's Birthday!

tambday
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

Shout out to my sis, Tami, on her 18th birthday...HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAMI! (and welcome to adulthood ;-)

February 05, 2005

Note the new runTracker!

I've put up the new runTracker utility that I built this evening! In case you didn't notice, it's on the top left area of the screen. It will let you know a little about my last five runs. At the bottom you will note the number of total miles I have run throughout my training. Improvements are coming soon! (I needed to start somewhere... :-)

February 04, 2005

P to the R

cdShuffle
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

For those of you not hip to competitive running jargon (or maybe even for those of you who are...), this post's title refers to one's PR or Personal Record. When you run a race, or even in practice, you're generally always against the clock, aiming for a new record. I recorded a new record today. It wasn't really a lifetime record, because I used to be a lot faster when I was in high school, but it was a recent memory PR: 15:57 for 2 miles...not bad says I. Sub 8 minute splits is good news. Now I only have to work on that patience. ;-)

This great time can probably be attributed to a few different things. There were two confounding variables in my run today: I used a different (older) treadmill, which may not measure correctly, and the fact that I used my *brand new* iPod Shuffle! I'd like to think the Shuffle helped me take my mind off the everyday aches and pains and tiredness, so I'll stick to that story.

I bought myself the shuffle a few days ago, but didn't open it until today. Three weeks ago I told myself that if I had good runs 4 days a week up until February 5th, then I'd buy myself an iPod of some kind. When I checked the Apple store at school the other day, I had to buy myself the shuffle, even though it was still two workouts prior to my goal, because I was afraid that when I finally hit my goal the store would be sold out. That would have been horrible...to have to wait a few more weeks. I did hold out on opening the new toy, though, which was good of me. Nice job, Josh.

As you can see in the picture above, the iPod shuffle is many times smaller than my old CD player, and it holds literally 20 times as many songs at one time. Technology is simply amazing. The iPod is also skip free, which is the main reason I bought it...so I can take it running without missing a beat. The thing I will miss about my CD player is the fact that it plays the radio. There's nothing like listening to NPR in the afternoon, and now when I do it I'll have to be either in the car or at a computer. In any case, the Shuffle is a beautiful little machine, and hopefully will help as I continue to run! (By the way...the construction of "Josh's RunTracker" software will commence at some point today. Perhaps I'll have a beta version up tonight...but don't hold your breath.)

February 02, 2005

ActionScript, etc.

I'm now 16/24ths done with my ActionScript seminar. That's right, two days down...and I've learned a lot so far. I'm not very thrilled with the seminar format. Basically we are just going through examples from a book...spending a lot of time simply typing code from the book into Flash and figuring out what it's doing. I think what I'll have to do is think of a fun project to work on and code up a work of art. That seems to be the best way to learn a programming language...or at least that's what E says. I'd agree. I became proficient in PHP and MySQL in a week or so just by making a project for myself...hopefully I'll get some free time to mess around with ActionScript in the same way.

So far I prefer PHP to ActionScript. I know they're used for different things, but I just feel like PHP gives more control in a straightforward manner, whereas Flash is pretty but is harder to use. Perhaps I'll get used to it as I continue working...

I think I'm starting to get in shape. I just ran more than 3 miles...and it felt good. It's weird, I'm getting in shape, yet I'm sleeping with less regularity than normal. I would expect it to be opposite. I've been waking up at weird times...2 AM & 6 AM in the last two evenings. I think it's because I didn't run those days, so my body did feel like I deserved (needed?) sleep. Either way, it feels good to not be completely tired after 2 miles. I can feel my body stregthening, and that's exciting.

I think the part of my marathon training that I really need to pay attention to is training myself to have some patience. I constantly up my running speed so I can get to the finish line sooner...but that won't work when I run a really long distance. I need to train my legs to slow down a little bit and save energy for the long haul. Sometimes taking it slow is the hardest part...

In other news, I presented a paper on State-dependent memory in aerobic exercise this evening. I think it went well. I'm sure I said some things the professor didn't agree with, but I think playing devil's advocate is good to a point. It wasn't my best presentation ever, but I'm happy with my performance. It leaves room for improvement on the final presentation.

I feel like I've been so busy lately. I think things will start to clear up after my presentation next Tuesday. Sometimes I'm just really antsy, and I need to tell myself to calm down. So, calm down! :-) I'll be back with more in a few days...

January 31, 2005

Going to SIG CHI!

So I'm headed to the SIG CHI Conference! My team's project was a winner in the first round of the student competition. The best part of it all is that all four of the teams from the School of Informatics were accepted...meaning a whole bunch of us are going to be travelling to Portland together. I'll be there for my birthday! This means a whole bunch more work will have to be done in the coming months, but I have a feeling it will all be worth it.

Tomorrow's the first day of a three day seminar on ActionScript, the programming language used with Macromedia's Flash package. I'm really pumped. Flash is ubiquitous on the web and makes it really easy to build beautiful pages. There is a downside, however. Flash pages are not as usable as they should, or could, be. Because web designers can simply create web pages from vector images, many do not hold the same web standards as pages built in HTML. This means beautiful web pages that are not usable. Flash must do something to fix this. They could implement a Flash style guide that makes it easy to keep web standards while making pages look good, or something like that. Whatever the case, after Thursday I'll know my ActionScript, and will be able to make beautiful and useful webpages (but that's only because I've taken classes that cover usability).

I'm due to build a piece of software in the next few days that will let you all know how my marathon training is going. I ran 2 miles this morning in 16:28 (8:14 splits!). Not bad, considering I only started training a few weeks ago, and that was following a 3 mile (long) day. The next step is to not catch the flu/cold that is going around the halls at school. That would be greatly detrimental. Good thing I've been taking my multivitamin.

Ok, time for bed...long day of coding tomorrow... :-)

January 30, 2005

Reading backlog

I haven't told you what I've been reading in a long time...here's a backlogged update:

The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm by Tom Kelley

Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister

Software For Your Head: Core Protocols for Creating and Maintaining Shared Vision by Jim and Michele McCarthy

Designing for People by Henry Dreyfuss

The Humane Interface: New Directions of Designing Interactive Systems by Jef Raskin...slowely but surely

I'll give a further update when I have all my books in front of me (in the office)

Hope the weekend is treating everyone well!

January 29, 2005

Swamped...

Time to offload some aggression:

• Grade suffering, so I need to pay attention to Design Wiki
• I'm leading a discussion Wednesday night on "State Dependent Memory Produced by Aerobic Exercise"


• It would be great to get an internship...anybody have tips?


• Need to write letters to Informatics-related organizations for Iota Nu Phi, the National Informatics Honors Society


• Presentation a week from Tuesday on "PowerPoint and External Cognition"


• Need to fill out Paperwork for Team in Training so I can run my marathon!


• While I'm at it...I should (and am) still be running regularly


• Hosting a party tonight..."A night of Spice" (Indian Food, etc. cooked by Apurva)


• Wanting to be at Sundance...that would be fun.

Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. In fact, I'm actually great now! I'll just be a whole lot better in a week and a half.

January 27, 2005

Changes...

There are going to be some changes going on around here, so don't get used to anything...

Following the creation of my new website, I have decided that I'm gonna make some changes to the look of my blog. They'll come slowly, but surely. The most important thing is that if you do not like a change I have made, you must let me know, for there is a deeper moral to this story:

Often when designers, engineers, inventors, etc. make a creation, they are absolutely blind to the negative aspects of their systems. It is soooo easy to get married to one of your ideas, which causes a honeymoon effect where you can see no wrong with it. The moment someone points out a fault in the system, one of two things happens:

1. The designer takes the criticism personally, and is upset by the critic


2. The designer realizes the critic is right, and quickly reiterates the design of the system so that it fixes the faults.

I hope to be this second type of designer. If you don't like something, call me on it. If I get enough complaints, or I agree with the original comment, I will make changes. Critics are often too polite in their assessments, I ask you not to be so.

For starters, what do you think of the new background color, off to the sides of the screen? Critique me! :-)

January 26, 2005

It's ugly...but at least it exists...

Microphone check it:

My new website!

Leave comments if you will...(I've been working on it for waaaay too long...yesterday evening and this morning...)

January 25, 2005

Happy 100th Entry!

Wow...I feel old...My blogging system thingy is telling me that this is my 100th entry...the time has gone by so fast. 100 entries in 5 months or so is roughly 20 entries per month. I'm happy with that, and hope that I can keep it up in the future. On such a monumental occasion, I better make this entry a good one.

So I lost an election yesterday...to a guy that wasn't even there. I was running for my department's graduate organization (GISA) Vice Prez of Professional Development. It's not a huge deal, though in my speech before the vote I suggested that myself and the other guy share the position, since I don't know a thing about the Bioinformatics profession, and he doesn't know a thing about HCI. Then I left the room and I guess they decided that one Vice Prez is the limit for this job...I hate that kind of rigidness in organizations. (I should note that the reason I lost was because all of the other elected board members were in HCI, so they wanted to make sure to get a Bioinformatics person on the board) In the end it didn't really matter if I won the position or not, because I'll be active in the organization anyway (and perhaps not having an official title or duties will free my time to actually do projects that interest me), but why can't an organization bend and break rules that hold it back? I think people need to be open to creative thought and not let silly things like titles get in the way (especially in an organization that is very, very young with members who have next to zero collective experience in major organizations).

Ok, enough ranting...I'm generally much more positive than this. How about creating a list of GISA goals for the year:

• Start a local SIG CHI chapter (and perhaps spread into one for the greater Indianapolis area)


• Get food & drinking fountain in the Informatics Building


• Raise funds!


• Start an alumni database/website


• Help Erik start a Friday afternoon colloquia series


• Make & Sell T-shirts


• Connect GISA and Iota Nu Phi, the National Informatics Honors Society that I cofounded ;-)


• I'm sure there are millions of other things to do...and I'll be there to help out, most definitely...

January 22, 2005

Singing on the 'mill

I'm not sure if I've said so before, but I've really stepped up my workout routine as of late. My apartment complex has a great gym, and it's only about 500 feet away from my door. Really convenient, especially on those cold cold days.

Anyway, going to the gym more has given me a fantastic opportunity to observe the interactions of those who are trying to (or already are) get in shape. Here are some regularities I've noticed:

• Men who don't know each other do not talk to one another. In fact, eye contact is avoided at all costs.


• Couples who come to work out together never finish the workout together. They'll come in all cutesy and ready to exercise as a team...they'll start out with a stretch, do a few of the lifting machines together, then all of a sudden one is on the bike and the other on the stairclimber. It happens every time. (I'm not making any comments about these peoples' relationships, but it's just these sorts of interactions that designers should recognize, so that we can get to the root as to what is causing this (perhaps) unwanted separation)


• When you go in the dance room, don't you dare dance. (I have never, ever seen anybody dancing in there. Perhaps I'll give it a shot ;-)

That's all the regularities for now...I want to get to some different fun...STORYTIME!

So when I got to the gym yesterday, I stepped up to the treadmill and started my warm-up jog. To my right there was an empty treadmill (but it's the crappy one), and to my left there was a girl who was at a more-than-medium pace listening to her iPod, we'll call her Lala. (This isn't a story about workout room romance, so get it out of your head.) After a few minutes, I'm jogging along, and all of a sudden I hear a *tweeeet*. It seems a song Lala was singing in her head nearly slipped out of her mouth. Not embarrassing, just a little jarring for me because it was unexpected. Then, out of nowhere, Lala lets out an entire line of chorus of a song. It was hard for me to keep my composure. She ended up doing it again 3 or 4 times after that, and it was hard to not laugh, but I was successful.

I guess this is the downfall of getting a music player for running...sometimes you just need to belt out that tune you're listening to, and in my experience, sometimes it's just too hard to run and guard yourself from public humiliation at the same time...after all, a good run is really tiring. In that case, props to Lala. She got a good workout, and had no need to censor her singing...i'll probably find myself in her shoes one day.

January 21, 2005

Reading my mind

I swear, this band is reading my mind...how did I never know about them before?

I don't mind the weather,
I've got scarves and caps and sweaters,
I've got long johns under slacks for blustery days.

When you will cross the country alone.

"Blacking Out the Friction," Death Cab for Cutie

January 18, 2005

They Sell Everything at Costco

This is awesome.

What can't you buy at Costco?

Not cool...effing cold!

4dg
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

Here's a screenshot of the bad news Weather.com bore me this morning. Four degrees? Feels like 4 degrees!!!??? WTF? How can it be 4 outside!? It's 9:30am for gosh sakes! How am I supposed to walk to the workout facility in these conditions? BTW, it's beautiful outside...completely sunny. In fact, I probably get more sun here than I did in CA, but why does it have to be so cold? >:-(

January 16, 2005

MLK Day

So tomorrow is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I always find it strange that we celebrate his birthday on the third Monday of January each year, instead of his January 15th birthday. Strange, strange...

I also wonder about what will be done to commemorate MLK's life by most Americans tomorrow. My bet is that most people will simply enjoy the day off, never really thinking about why they're not working in the first place. Again...strange, strange...

January 15, 2005

Major Purchases + Seeking Advice

Before I go about making a major purchase ($100+), I generally ask myself two questions:

• Why do I need the object of my desire?


• How will said object change my life?

Today I find myself drooling over portable mp3 players, unable to decide whether I really need one, or if it is just an object of desire...sometimes it's just so hard to tell.

Yesterday I told myself that the only reason I would ever need something like an iPod would be to carry around my entire music collection, otherwise my CD player works just fine. Then today I was running and realized that it sure would be nice if I could have 4-5 gigabytes (a few thousand hours) worth of music docked on my bicep. Music sure does make the run go faster, and as I begin training for a marathon I realized that it might be a good time to purchase an ultraportable music player that will hold a good amount of music.

The two objects of desire are:

1. Apple iPod Mini


2. Creative Zen Micro

The iPod Mini is great because they sell so many accessories for it, including the iPod Mini Armband which will allow me to attach the machine to my bicep, just like I wanted. Also, Apple claims that this device has 25 minute skip protection, which is the best in the business, I think. Also, the iPod's interface is quite clearly the best in the business, which does mean something to my HCI/Designer sensibilities...is it possible that I would go with a lesser quality product just because it has more features?

The Zen Micro has damn near a million features, some that I would appreciate, including FM radio, a removable 12 hour battery (compared to the iPod's 8 hour non-removable), and a 5GB hard drive (compared with the iPod's 4GB). However, I can't find an armband made for the device and the website makes no mention of skip protection.

If anybody has advice about these, please fill me in!

So, to answer my questions:

Why do I need a portable mp3 player?
Simply because it will make my runs all that much easier, plus it will be nice to carry around a sizeable chunk of my music collection when I'm bopping around campus, going on road trips, or flying about the country.

How will said object change my life?
This question is a little more difficult to answer. It won't affect my day to day life in a meaningful way...I'll be able to carry around more music, but to be really honest, when I'm at school I'm generally either in class or sitting at a computer, which allows me to simply stream music from the 'net. It will help me when I'm not at a computer, and may motivate me to continue running, which is meaningful. Perhaps I can give myself some incentive to buy one of these for myself...some goal which, once surpassed, will free me to give myself a gift. If I could only think of a good goal...

By the way, am I an idiot for ruling out the iPod 20GB? It also has skip protection and is only $50 more. I'm not sure if I could strap it to my arm, however. Perhaps I'll save some money and try out a *brand new* iPod Shuffle. It may turn out that that's exactly what I'm looking for...

January 14, 2005

Ridiculous

Perhaps the most ridiculous newsworthy article I've EVER read:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/990903.cms

Couldn't the reporter or paper just ignore this news? Did they really have to bash the Duchess as hard as they did? What a world, what a world.

January 13, 2005

Evolution: "a theory, not a fact"

First, check this out.

This is a great debate...one which will probably last forever. I would say that all those who do not believe in evolution should spend at least one year taking zoology, neuroscience, and anthropology courses at a high school level. That *should* do a lot as far as convincing them that we have decended from tiny creepy crawlies that swim. However, this is not my point. The schools in question went so far as to put stickers in their textbooks that proclaim: "It should be warned that evolution is a theory, not a fact." Personally, I cannot think of a better situation in which to teach children that all ideas in science are theories and not by any means facts. There isn't a scientific principle that does not rest on some theory that can be debated. Why do we wait until college to teach this to students? It just doesn't make sense to me. A viable option for this school district would be to put a sticker on all science books that boldly proclaims, "It should be warned that scientific theories are simply theories, not proven facts."

Oooh, I bet there are some Empiricists hating me for this ;-) (but they shouldn't)

January 12, 2005

Why is my internet so slow?

Is somebody stealing my bandwidth? If I only had an understanding of how that sort of thing worked...

January 11, 2005

I really was tired

In my last post, I wrote from the airport and complained that I was tired and hungry. I tell you now that before I went to bed last night at 10:30, I had only had one real meal and 3 hours of sleep. No sleep and no food makes Josh really tired and delirious. Then I went to sleep and didn't stop until 11:30 this morning. That felt gooooood. It's been a really long time since I have slept like that. 13 freaking hours, that's more than half a day. Lordy lordy.

Now I'm back at school. It's going well, I'm really excited about the first two classes I've been in, and the third (which is tomorrow evening) should be cool as well. I'll explain them more in-depth soon. I'm also an AI (Associate Instructor, AKA TA) again, for the same class that I did last semester: Intro to Human-Computer Interaction. I'm gonna know that book as if I wrote it. That's probably a good thing.

Ok, that's all for now. I'm off to work out (need to shed my holiday/vegas pounds) then am going to Borders with T and E to check out the books. Ponder this: why is it cool to go to Borders and hang out/pay for books, but uncool to go to the library to hang out/not pay for books?

January 09, 2005

Live from Las Vegas

Entry originally written on paper at McCarran International Airport, Las Vegas, NV

I'm tired. And hungry. Why is it that airports have expensive, yet shitty, foods?

So I am headed back to school tonight. I'll be riding a redeye that'll land in Chicago at 5am or so, then on to Indianapolis by 8 or 9. If all goes well, I should be at school an hour before my first class.

Winter break was interesting. Every time I leave home I forecast that it will be the last time that I'll have had an extended, relaxing vacation at home. I've been wrong thus far. This trip home held plenty of good times, from two separate trips to Vegas to afternoon workouts with the Sis at LA Fitness to meals with old friends. I definitely got a lot done.

Overarching aspirations questions did go unanswered, however, but I guess one can't have it all. Speaking of questions, I still owe answers to the ones I posed at the beginning of the break. Hopefully I'll hit those up sometime this week.

While I'm apprehensive about doing real work again, I am rather excited to go back to school. True, it will be (effing) cold, but hangin' with the Informists tends to be fun. We had some good times last semester & now that we all know each other a little better, this semester should hold many good times.

Writing here has been a good diversion. Perhaps I'll add more later. For now, I'll leave you with some lyrics that have struck especially close to home lately...

So this is the new year...
and I don't feel any different.

So this is the new year...
So this is the new year...
So this is the new year...

-Death Cab for Cutie, "The New Year", Transatlanticism

January 07, 2005

Heading to CES

Gotta write fast...I think. My computer has been freezing up lately, I'm not sure exactly why, but I've had it serviced twice and it's still going on...I'll have to do some real deep analysis when I get back to Indiana.

Speaking of which, I'm headed to Vegas this afternoon with P, S, and others. We'll be at CES, the big, huge annual celebration of Consumer Electronics. To tell the truth, I'm not all that excited about CES in this, my third year as an attendee. What I am looking forward to is hanging out with some friends from SD in Las Vegas.

The actual electronics are never really spectacular. Maybe it's just because I'm kinda thinking about future technologies all the time, but the stuff that's due to come out in 6 months just isn't all that exciting when compared to the stuff that's due out in 10 years or so. It's generally all for show...nobody is pushing 'new' technologies, rather they're showing off the 'dumbed-down' versions, generally with weak user interfaces that the geeks at the show thoroughly enjoy. I'll report on what I see over the weekend next time.

On Sunday evening I'll be waiting at McCarran Int'l Airport for my redeye flight back to Indianapolis, and I should get back to Bloomington on Monday an hour before my first class. I wonder if I remembered to leave a change of clothes in my office...

To all you Hoosiers, see you soon. All you Tritons, see you sooner. Everybody else, be well.

January 03, 2005

Searched Google and got...ME?

I did a quick Google search this evening and what was the third site listed? Why, it was Notta Blog, the site you're on right now! That was pretty sweet. Seems I'm moving on up in the world, if the Goog recognizes me... :-D

My mom is watching

Hello all, my mom is standing behind me right now, watching how I blog. I think I heard a statistic today that said something like, "While 'blog' was the most searched word on the internet, 61% of internet users do not know what a blog is." This is amazing, but pretty easy to believe. Those who understand what a blog is know that it is an extremely powerful medium. Those who don't know about them really have no way of 'jumping on the bandwagon.' It's really not easy to get into this game, unless you know someone who has a blog, or just happen to bump into something you enjoy. Here's a question for all you blog readers...how did you first happen upon the blogging world?

My first blog was Belle de Jour, a now defunct blog (which was updated for the first time in a long time the other day). It is the story of a London Callgirl (who just happens to be a brilliant writer). I loved coming back every day to hear her adventures from the day before. Sometimes they were a bit lewd, but in general they were just entertaining. She has a book due out soon based on the blog. Really interesting stuff.

Soon after this, a few of my friends started websites and blogs which they updated in order to tell about their lives. First there was Joel's page. Joel is a rabbinical school student, and when he spent his first year of school in Jerusalem he built a little page to update all his friends about his life. I think he has since taken the page down, but it was still pretty interesting when it existed. Next Josh and Doron started up blogs when they each moved to Israel. It's funny actually, all of my friends who were the first to jump on the blog trend did so when they moved to Israel. Strange coincidence.

I guess after I started reading these blogs, I was off to find others that interested me. Now there's a whole long list of blogs that I check out. Perhaps I'll put up a little blog roll (a list of all the blogs I read). Try to find some blogs that you enjoy. This is a medium that is extremely powerful. It gives individuals the power to publish their words and thoughts, a feat which often goes ignored.

Subtle, smooth, hiiiiint

This is why.

This is how.

January 02, 2005

Major Project Sooooo Close...

The big project I've been working on now for 2 months or so (6-8 weeks with one group, and then 2-3 more with the team I'm on now) is so close to being done I can taste it. I almost want to make plans for earlier in the day than when it's due...but know that I probably shouldn't. It's due tomorrow at 5 PST, but hopefully we'll have it in long before that.

I've been cold pretty much all day today. It's my legs, you see. Basically what I need to do is put on some pants of some sort, but I'm too darn stubborn to walk upstairs and put them on. I'll do it before I go to sleep though, then I'll likely wake up in a sweat because I'll be too hot...ugh...

Crazy thoughts going through my head lately. Don't really want to talk about it, but kinda do all at the same time. I'll sleep on it, and perhaps I'll divulge some details tomorrow.

I know, some must be waiting for me to answer the 20 questions that I laid out for myself at the end of the semester...be patient. I'll get around to it soon, I think.

Also, I owe everyone some stories from trip #1 to Vegas for this vacation. Trip #2 is slated for next weekend. Woohoo...but I'm still so tired from the first trip...I owe owe owe, one of these days i'm really gonna catch up on the blogging thing. Perhaps that day is tomorrow.

This all leads to a very important question:
Q: What do you call an idiot in suspense?
A: I'll tell you tomorrow.

;-)

January 01, 2005

Happy New Year.

Hang Overs.
Waking up late.
The Rose Parade (complete w/beautiful California weather, always).
Football.
Naps.
Resolutions.
Fresh starts.
Bitter ends.
Reflections.
Happy (end of) Old Year.
Happy New Year.

December 25, 2004

My New Year's Resolution

My sis and her friends from camp are in the next room. I've been listening to them gossip and chat and sing and play all evening. They're so cool. I remember when I would have friends over and would play all night long, but I think I remember it ending before senior year. The sis and her friends are able to catch up at the drop of a hat. That's how it is with camp people.

There's just something different about people you meet at summer camp. It's so easy to reacquaint yourself, even after you haven't seen them in a while. My oldest friends are from camp. It doesn't really matter how long we go without talking, when we sit down to coffee or a drink, it's like we're back at the chapel, or in the dining hall, or in the cabin, just like old times. I miss my camp friends, I'll make a better effort to contact them. That is my New Year's resolution.

December 24, 2004

Home sweet home...

Got in to CA late last night after a crazy evening in the Indianapolis airport. I'm pretty lucky to have made it back, the process of getting on a flight out here was no fun...

Went to breakfast with my dad this morning, and I rolled the windows down. "It's pretty cold out," he said. "HAH!" I laughed. I just sat in the car and felt the sun on my face...it had been a while. I was so happy when I was outside today...it was HOT. I've never said that I couldn't live in a cold weather climate...I'm doing fine in Indiana, but I sure do prefer the California climate I've grown up with. For me, it's just not Christmas* unless the sun is shining and there's no snow in sight. That's unfathomable for some, I'm sure.

It feels so good to be home. :-D

December 22, 2004

Rachel to Warhol

RacheltoWarhol
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

I just Photoshopped a pic of my cousin so that it looks like an Andy Warhol rendition. Pretty cool, ey? I think so...props go out to the flickr technique group.

My car is covered! (IMG_4031)

My car is covered! (IMG_4031)
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

It snowed like crazy last night! It's literally a winter wonderland. I've never been in snow like this. Last night there was not a drop of snow on the ground, and now, all of a sudden, there's 6 or 7 inches! My feet sink in when I take a step. Pretty cool if you ask me, but it would probably be highly annoying if I had anything really important to do out of the house...

December 21, 2004

iPod in my future?

I've been researching digital music players recently...not sure if I actually need one, but storing all my music in a portable device would probably be nice. I've been wondering...what's so cool about the iPod that makes it so much better than everything else on the market? I don't know...but they sure do look cool. If anyone has an answer, please share.

My sis just got an iPod, i think I'll play with hers when I'm home over break, then maybe I'll get one for myself if I like it...

EyeBeeEm :-(

Turns out IBM is less wonderful than previously announced. The computer is going back again at the end of the week. I think they're gonna give me a new hard drive.

I'm still sick. Went to the health center yesterday and saw a PA who said he lived in San Diego for years. We reminisced about the great weather and sights. Anyway, he gave me some medicine. I guess it helps the cough a little, but it also makes me tired and dizzy. I'm not sure which is worse.

I built a program yesterday just for fun. Actually, I've been doing that pretty regularly since learning PHP a few weeks ago. The program displays portions of a paper that I'm working on, and has checkboxes so I can mark off when I'm done with that section. I can also add comments and do some other stuff too. It's pretty sweet. A few weeks ago I built a birthday tracker program that announces when it is somebody's birthday. You'll note this on the top of my blog, but not today (unless it's somebody's birthday today!). Add a comment if I haven't already contacted you about your birthday (I already knew some birthdays, so don't assume I forgot about you!).

Oooh, I'm feeling tired and dizzy, time for a nap methinks.

December 20, 2004

IBM is wonderful

Just got my computer back in the mail. IBM replaced the system board, memory, and the battery latch, and also updated the BIOS and ran a virus scan. All this for free, all finished 3 full days before they estimated. IBM is wonderful, maybe I'll buy some stock.

December 19, 2004

Breaking Away

Just watched Breaking Away for the first time since coming to Bloomington. I recognize much more than when I saw it for the first time. It's interesting to see Bloomington as a bright, sunny, springtime place, especially when I take into account the fact that it's snowing outside. Spring should be great, minus the allergies. It does look like it will be beautiful here. Oh, and the Little 500 should be fun too.

Speaking of beautiful, I'll be heading home to old California toward the end of this week. I'm really looking forward to some good Mexican food. There's a lack of that cuisine here. When I was at school in San Diego my post-finals routine consisted of a prompt trip to Lolita's or Roberto's to get a burrito or two. I miss those...Mmm...California Burrito, Jumbo burrito, Carne Asada Fries...all so good. You should come try some with me.

Ok, I'll keep it short and sweet. Watch for some pix to be up here soon.

December 16, 2004

World On Fire

Watch this...

http://www.worldonfire.ca/

December 15, 2004

Time for reflection

Aaand...I'm back. I've been relatively elusive lately. When I have written it hasn't been very substantial, and that would be a complement. Unfortunately I'm too tired and sick to do outstanding work right now...but I'll give it a half-shot.

I finished my last school assignment of the semester this afternoon. Now all I have left is a bunch of grading to do, then I'll be ready to go home. This leads to a bunch of questions:

1. How did I do this semester?
2. Is grad school everything I expected it to be?
3. What have I learned?
4. What haven't I learned?
5. Am I moving in a general direction toward where I really want to be?
6. Am I happy? Am I making others happy?
7. Was the cross-country move worth everything I gave up?
8. How's the cold weather treating me?
9. Do I miss California?
10. Where do I see myself in 5 years? 10 years? 1.5 years?
11. What am I doing for the break?
12. What am I doing this summer?
13. What have I accomplished over the last semester?
14. What will I strive to accomplish next semester?
15. What kinds of personal relationships have I built?
16. Is Indiana really basketball heaven?
17. Any regrets?
18. What could I have worked harder on?
19. What am I most proud of?
20. Am I upholding the high standards I set for myself?

I think that list will do for now. In the next few days I will set out to answer these questions, and perhaps others. If you have others you'd like to see answered, please leave a comment, and maybe I'll answer it. For now I'll send my aching body to dreamland...

December 09, 2004

Grammar by Google

Not much time to write, but I wanted to relay a situation that just occurred. I'm in the middle of proofreading a paper and wasn't sure if I wanted to use the word 'affect' or 'effect'. I'm generally not bad at grammar and spelling, but affect and effect generally always confuse me. I'm gonna send a whiny email to those guys who wrote the English language...what were they thinking?

Anyway, to the point. In order to see which word was right, I simply typed the important part of the sentence into Google (in double quotes, of course, otherwise the little words don't get searched). Then, based on the number of pages that came up for each search I was able to logically discover which was the correct (a/e)ffect. Here's the example I used:

• "how these influences effect"
• "how these influences affect"

85-169, looks like affect wins! Next time you have a grammatical or spelling quandary, check your options on Google. Trust the people in internet land...we're smarter when we work together.

December 07, 2004

php and cgi and perl, oh my!

I've been using some new and really really powerful technologies to build some cool interactions for websites lately. So back in the day I thought that a webpage could only be made using HTML. (HTML = HyperText Markup Language -> it's the stuff that's used to make the webpage you're looking at look the way it does, to see the code of the current page go to "View" --> "Page Source") Then I learned about XHTML, which for all intents and purposes is the same thing as HTML. After that I learned CSS (CSS = Cascading Style Sheets -> these make it easy to control layout and positioning of pieces of a webpage. they also allow a single file to control the layout of a bunch of web pages, which is a really nice thing to have if you're creating a big site.), which was rather powerful in its own right. Lately, however, I've been toying with PHP (PHP = Hypertext PreProcessor -> allows you build programs to be run on webpages, that all get executed on the computer that sends information to your computer) and Perl (Practical Extraction and Reporting Language -> used to ...

Hold on now. Wait up. Look at me get all technocentric on you. I apologize. That wasn't very fair of me. As I read over everything I just wrote, I realize that it is too complicated to comprehend. If you were interested in the gory details of the web, you'd learn about them...but that's not why you come to my website, or really any website. When you surf the web, you just want your information quickly and easily, so you can get on your merry way. OR, you're here for entertainment...not about the details...

My bad. I'll try not to let it happen again. I consider myself warned for being a bad host. Here's some cool HCI-related stuff for your time: Check this out. It's a flower that sits in your periphery that lets you know when your significant other is online...great and good = grood. :-)

December 04, 2004

Levels of Entertainment

I think I just decided that I have varying levels of entertainment for myself, dependent on my level of tiredness(man, I wish I could think of a better word than that...). Generally when I'm blogging I'm in a somewhat tired mood. I tend to add entries either in the early morning directly after waking up, or in the evening before I head to bed. The current situation is the latter.

When I'm not very tired, I like to do things like go for a drive or pick up a good non-fiction book. When I'm a little more tired I'll read a non-fiction, or do some online reading. Then when the tiredness level reaches a certain point I go for a movie or television. This is generally a mistake because it often makes me even more tired.

Why is it that lying lazily on the couch and watching the ol' tube-o-vision can put one out like a light? I don't know, but it does it to me nearly every time. Perhaps it's because one's brain is in the process of growing mold, so it protects itself by going to sleep. Wow, someone with a degree in something like Cognitive Science should really never come up with a theory like that one...what's wrong with me? I don't know, maybe I'm just tired...I'm gonna go watch some TV now...

December 01, 2004

Double Yolked

A couple topics of note occured today. First, and probably most exciting, when I cracked open my egg as I was cooking breakfast, I was surprised to find two yolks! In the same egg! Astonishing! I've heard this could happen, but had never actually witnessed it. Apparently this was an instance of identical twin chickens. Too bad I don't eat yolks, or else I would have been in for a special treat.

Had a big presentation this morning. I'm on a team that is designing a solution for the SIG CHI Student Design Competition. (SIG CHI is another acronym...it stands for Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction, and is part of the ACM, or Association for Computing Machinery.) We presented our initial design solution, and I think we got a fairly positive review. However, there is still a lot of work to be done, so we definitely should not let this early success go to our heads. After all, we're competing not only against those at our school, but from schools around the world.

As a reward for finishing the presentation E and I went to see The Incredibles. It is the best movie I've seen in a long while. Outstanding plot, script, action, animation, humor. Just fantastic. If you haven't seen, go.

Apparently my Hint, Hints have worked! My mom sent Designing for People and The Art of Innovation as a Channukah (Hanukah, Hannukkah, Hannukah, Chanukkah?) present. There's always more reading to be done, and that is somewhat exciting...

Ok, off to bed...must try to wake up early tomorrow so I can get my work out on.

Try Flickr, it's fun!

IMG_3905
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

I've set up Flickr & recommend it to all you photographers, bloggers, & photobloggers out there. Pretty sweet tool, and it's free.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

November 30, 2004

Feeling Neglected?

Been a while, ey? It's fair to say I'm super duper busy these days, as I always am when ol' finals time rolls around. Two weeks left before finals, and I'm starting to learn that in grad school, it's not the finals that kill you, it's the final projects that are due before finals begin. I have a grand total of 2 final exams: one in the form of a paper, the other a real deal test. However, I have 4 projects due in the next 2 weeks, so I'm a bit under the homework.

Worked out this morning at 7am. That was refreshing. I've had pretty good energy today, but now I'm fading fast. I've begun my running regimen. Two miles 2 days ago, 1.5 today. The knee is doing well, and I want to take it slow as I up my mileage. Gotta run smart, not hard.

If you haven't seen Dead Like Me yet, give it a shot. I highly recommend it.

Oh, and check out Epic 2014.

I promise I'll write more starting next week, after I turn in all my projects! Just be patient...

November 29, 2004

Stuff we should have learned...

I've seen about 10 good examples of Really Awesome Displays (RADs) between going to the Museum of Science & Industry and just hanging out at school. Anyone who doubts the onset of these technologies is, frankly, wrong.

Last night E and I discussed the possibility of team teaching a course titled "Stuff we should have learned in our first semester of HCI School." There are so many very practical topics that we think should have been taught to us, but have not been. Don't get me wrong, we have learned a lot so far, but there are some more things that could be taught. The idea right now is to either have an extracurricular group that meets semi-frequently, or to offer an actual 1 credit course for undergrads. We're gonna work on a syllabus before the break. Sweet.

Time to shower...perhaps more later.

November 25, 2004

Let it snow

Drove into Chicago yesterday morning. Beat the traffic, but not the snow. I realized that it was my first time in the snow within a large city. It was definitely my first time driving in the snow. My car and I handled it well. Just drove really slow and there were no problems.

A lot of the street signs were covered with snow, so it was difficult to navigate the unfamiliar areas. I've been thinking of ways to fix this problem. Perhaps the signs could be self-heating, and then could melt off the snow? I'm sure others are already trying to fix this problem...but perhaps not.

My cousin Rachel is sitting next to me right now. She's so cool. Here's a message from Rachel, age 7 and 3/4 (transcribed by yours truly):
"Hi everybody. There is snow all around. How are you doing? You should come to Chicago, because Chicago is a very good city to live in. Happy Thanksgiving. Bye."

Ok, on that note I'm outta here. Have a fantastic Thanksgiving, and enjoy all those people and things around you.

By the way, check out the website I helped my cousin Sam build.

November 23, 2004

Really Awesome Displays

It's been a while since I've commented on the topic I study every day, HCI (Human-Computer Interaction, in case you've forgotten...it really has been a while). I sit here waiting for some CDs to burn and continuously think to myself that it won't be long until I will never have to *wait* for my computer to do anything, ever again. This is because, as you probably know, computers and their components are getting faster and faster literally every day. Moore's law tells us that computer processor speeds double every 3 years, and also states that the price of a given computer processor speed drops in half in the same amount of time. Basically, if the things we do on the computer stay the same, the amount of time it will take for the processor to work on them will be shortened dramatically in a short number of years.

The repurcussions of this increase in speed will mean a lot for all of us. First of all, we won't have to spend as much money on these blasted machines. More importantly, however, this will mean that engineers and others will have more inspiration to improve the peripheral toys we all use in conjunction with our PCs...music systems (both for sound input and output), pointing devices (like mouses), input systems (like keyboards), and most important (in my opinion), Really Awesome Displays.

I envision a world in which computer monitors are *everywhere*, but not in a scary 1984 way...as long as those in the HCI profession have something to say about it. Imagine a computer monitor the size of an entire wall...it displays nothing save a rendition of Van Gogh's Starry Night, and then all of a sudden you realize you've forgotten your friend's phone number on your dresser at home. Walk to the wall and after a few taps, you're searching theYellow Pages for the number. Now, imagine doing the same thing on your car window. How about on a page in the newspaper?

There will soon be a day where you will be able to access the internet via your kitchen table, refrigerator, and even your paper notebook. These displays will change the way we live, and will be the tools that our children wonder how we could have lived without. Ubiquitous displays...information literally at your fingertips. It's exciting, and in some respects a bit scary, but truly awesome technologies are on their way. I, for one, can't wait.

November 22, 2004

The Sound of Settling

"I've got a hunger twisting my stomach into knots, that my tongue has tied off.
My brain's repeating, if you've got a hunger let it out,
but they never make it past my mouth.

Are you this fleeting? Old age is just around the bend.
I can't wait to go grey.
I'll sit and wonder of every love that could have been,
If I'd only thought of something charming to say."
-Death Cab for Cutie, "The Sound of Settling"

Words of advice that I hope to live by: never settle. There's always better. Better for self, better for others, better for the world. Never rest on what you've already done, you're only as good as the next challenge. Settle down, but don't settle.

November 21, 2004

Little Moments

Complex little monkeys, we are. I sometimes theorize that life is made up of a lot of playtime, work, and intense little moments. These intense little moments are more important than anything else you do. In one's memory they stand out and are excessively clear. One that pops into my head nearly every time I drive is a moment right before my 16th birthday when I went for a drive with my mom. We were out on a crowded LA freeway when she said, "You should wait until you can see the whole car in your rearview mirror before you try to pass it." I think about that and use the rule every time I drive.

Another moment was when I was about 5 years old. I was slightly obsessed with my dad's height and remember walking toward our Phoenix apartment and asking, "Isn't it fun to be so tall?" I don't remember his exact response, but it was something that made me think that I, in fact, was tall in comparison with ants. I then realized that it was fun to be as tall as I was. Weird, I know, but it has affected the way I think to this day.

Is this just how my brain works, or is it like this for everybody? Do we all have little moments in our life that, though seemingly inconsequential, are actually important. Do others also vividly remember these moments, as I do? I would hope so, because I really treasure my little moments, and wish there was a way to record them all. If you can think of a way, please let me know.

November 20, 2004

Just another Friday night

I must give big thanks to Doron, the post drinking/late night advice was stellar. Thanks to that comment I can feel today will be a good, hard-working one. In fact, I've already graded all of the assignments that I needed to! Woohoo! I had been putting that off for so long.

Happy B-day to B and T. They weren't born on the same day, but close enough so that we could celebrate them together. We took them out last night, and it was quite fun. Nick's for "Sink the Biz," then Don Chuy's so I could eat a burrito (I really miss my late-night burritos), then Fester's and the Upstairs Pub. Fester's was empty, and the people at Upstairs Pub were lame (by lame I mean judgemental and looking at you like you're crazy just for dancing a little bit...). What are you gonna do?

I feel really really busy right now. So much on my ToDo list. I don't want to have to work a whole lot over Thanksgiving, so I'm trying to get a lot done. We'll see how successful I am.

I'll try to think of some more opinionated topics to dump on you all. More of that later.

Get Firefox!

Ok, let me make this clear. I am an Interaction Designer. (Well, at least that's what we're called for the time being.) I sometimes design interactions to be enacted on a medium called the Internet. You will not get the full effect of these interactions if you use Microsoft's Internet Explorer to view my interaction designs. You will also be missing out on a bunch of other cool features that should be expected of an internet browser, such as security. I am here to proclaim that Mozilla Firefox is a superior browser, and it is time for you to go get it. Seriously folks, better product and it is *free*. If I offered you a new Kia or a new BMW, both for free, which would you choose? This may not be the best argument, but I'll give you one that is better: If you want to view sites made by me (and obviously you do, I mean, you're here, right?), you'll get the full effect only if you use Firefox. So I'll make it really easy, just click the button below, and you'll be set on your merry way...into the world of the better Internet.

November 17, 2004

Another great acronym

PITA = "Pain in the ass"

Great stuff...

More and More Hint, Hints...A Music Edition

I'm just trying to be helpful...I swear I'm not just being greedy!

Death Cab For Cutie - Audio CD, I'll take any (used or new): here are a few:

• Transatlanticism
• The Photo Album
• We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes
• There are a bunch of others...

Copeland - Audio CD, I'll take any (used or new): here are a few:

• Beneath Medecine Tree
• Know Nothing Stays the Same -> This one's a bargain!

Weakerthans - Audio CD, Reconstruction Site

Plus a Book:
The Art of Innovation : Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm by Tom Kelley, Jonathan Littman, Tom Peters

November 16, 2004

Jesus Christ, Super Star

Just saw my first musical in Indiana..."Jesus Christ Super Star" was pretty good, I thought. Went with E and T...I think they enjoyed it as well. I'm not so knowledgable when it comes to the Christian religion, Jesus, etc., so I was definitely lost at some points. It's all good though. Now I have the theme song stuck in my head...Does it make me a bad person if I thought about Monty Python's "Life of Brian" throughout this musical? If so, I'm definitely bad (Always look on the bright side of life...do do, do do do do do do...).

I'm always on the lookout for new online jargon. Acronyms are especially cool because they are generally not that hard to figure out (at least for me). Some examples are IMHO, which means "In My Humble (or honest) Opinion." A relatively recent one that I've heard is "SPIT", which stands for "Spam over Internet Telephony." Internet telephony means VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) services such as Skype. The acronym I learned today is a strange one: IANAL. IANAL stands for "I Am Not A Lawyer," as in: I read the proposed amendment to the US constitution, and although IANAL, I think the policies presented will hurt our country. If you are a lawyer, you can use "IAAL." Isn't jargon fun? I think so...

Ok, off to retain my early bedtime status...oh, and as per K's comment...Why yes, I am a morning person.

November 15, 2004

A simple experiment

I'm conducting a simple experiment with myself this week. As I drove to school last Wednesday around 10:30AM, I kept thinking about how early in the day it felt to me. I then immediately thought myself a fool. 10:30 in the morning should not feel early! So I've taken it upon myself to go to bed a little earlier and wake up correspondingly. Last night I went to bed around 11 and woke up at 7. (Which is in comparison to my normal bedtime between 12 and 1, and wakeup between 8-9.) Tonight I'm going to try to go to sleep around 10. I think I'll wake myself up around 6:30.

Today the experiment did not go well...I got really really cranky in the afternoon, and needed a nap. As per T's advice, I'm gonna give it a try for a few more days, because my body has to get used to the sleep schedule. In any case, I'm taking a risk because I have a test on Friday that I should prepare myself for.

I'll keep you all updated as to my progress...

November 14, 2004

Sorry Everbody

Amazon.com just broke...I swear I would have bought the book if it would have worked.

We need faster internet service from home. Time to start working on DSL...

Here's a fun website I ran into this evening: Sorry Everybody. Oh, and here's the response by all those forgiving foreigners.

The world, in fact, is all good.

Visuo-Spatial Learning

I noticed today that I spend a good part of my waking, speaking hours wondering if I'm coming across clearly to those around me. It seems that some people come across really in control of the words that come out of their mouths at all times. The truth is (and it has taken me a long time to realize this) that I may not truly understand what I am talking about if I am pressured to respond quickly. Does this make sense?

I am what those in the world of Educational Psychology call a "Visuo-Spatial Learner." That means I learn best when I can actually see or interact with the concepts that are presented to me. As a result of this, when conversing with someone about an advanced topic, I may have to take a break and "rotate" my thoughts in my head, and visually consider what I am thinking about. This is really hard for others (and myself) to accept sometimes. The simple fact is that verbal debate or conversation only works if there is relatively fast banter between the participants.

I've learned many tricks to help deal with my "condition." Sometimes simply introducing a third person into the conversation gives me enough time to get a good grasp on my opinion, at least enough so that I can succinctly verbalize it. Using external representations helps me tremendously. Simply ensuring that a concept is outlined on a whiteboard or piece of paper helps greatly.

Perhaps this all sounds weird, but I think there are many more out there like me who have a hard time realizing it. In the end, I don't look at this as a problem, I just look at the world differently than others. Many people are auditory learners (so they can remember facts just by hearing them), while others are simply visual learners (meaning they only have to see something in order to easily remember it...this is different than the visuo-spatial learning style). These learning types should be widely taught, and taken into account in the classroom. Material should be presented in many forms, using many types of media, which can help students tremendously...Perhaps I'll study this one day (when I'm done looking at "folk" theories, and other stuff...ooh, perhaps it can be studied in conjunction with Large-Scale Displays...).

Whatever the case, if you have to deal with me on a daily basis, don't treat me like a weirdo. Just because I'm a visuo-spatial learner doesn't make me any less smart. In fact, maybe you can find some of these tendencies in your own outlook...

November 13, 2004

Even More Hint, Hints...

I really should make a website just for all the things I want...What can I say? I'm a consumer... Here's some new additions:

Garden State DVD

Sirius Satellite Radio - Erm...though I probably don't really need it...

Netflix Subscription - So I can get my burn on...

Surely there's more to come...

Garden State

I just watched a little movie called Garden State. Wow. It was really good. Sometimes a movie just hits you and SLAM, suppressed thoughts quickly flow to the surface. I'm not even sure what emotions I'm feeling, but I'm definitely emoting something...Great movie, if you haven't seen, do.

In other media news, I'm sporting some new tunes this evening. If you're into music, I recommend you try Audioscrobbler. It's this service that tracks what you listen to, then you can go to the website and It'll recommend bands, and connect you with people who listen to similar music. Then you can see what your neighbors are listening to that you haven't heard yet...leading to new music that you'll probably like! Check out my page, and add me to your list of friends!

Right now i'm listening to a band called Copeland...interesting. At first listen, I definitely think they're alright...and have room to grow on me. That's good news, it's generally scary if you really really like a band at first, at least for me. The Weakerthans is another band that I'm toying with.

Went to Indianapolis today to visit Eli Lilly. It was cool...definitely aimed at my program's Bioinformatists. E and I held our own though...representing HCI. Afterward we went for some Indian food with some of the Bioinfo crew. Great food...It's definitely best to go to ethnic restaurants with people of that ethnicity...they know where to go and what to get. I left fuller than I've felt in a while...but in a good way.

To sleep I go...

November 11, 2004

Tolerance and Learning

I think I need to be a little more tolerant when it comes to the things I'm studying...I find myself very judgemental about the ideas that are presented to me. It's not because I don't like them, but because I've learned about them in other contexts, and now it just doesn't feel the same. I need to learn to let go of my instincts and just have some faith in my teachers. Ech...I'm tired.

Off to Indianapolis tomorrow to represent the HCI/Designers from the school of Informatics when the school goes to visit Eli Lilly. 17 Bioinformaticists and E and myself...it should be interesting to say the least. We'll probably hang out in Indy afterwards, should be fun.

Watching Waiting For Guffman at the moment...great film. I just noticed that I need some sleep...perhaps I'll leave. Yes, yes I will.

November 09, 2004

Firefox 1.0

Here's some quick news for everybody. Mozilla Firefox v1.0 was released this morning. What does this mean? It means that you no longer have to depend on Internet Explorer to browse the 'net. You may not realize it, but Internet Explorer has many security flaws that are going untouched by the likes of Microsoft. Firefox is a free browser with a ton of features (but works almost identical to IE, so there's nothing new to learn). Go to the Firefox website to check it out, or just click here to download it now!

November 08, 2004

Good Morning, Class

This morning I taught my first class as a graduate student. It was pretty cool. In case you aren't in the know, my job while I'm here at school is to be an Associate Instructor (which is basically code for "Teacher's Assistant"), and this semester my class is the Undergrad intro to HCI design course. Along with the other AI, Tony, I taught about frameworks for design evaluations. Among the many frameworks are: "quick and dirty" methods, formal usability testing, field studies, and predictive studies. You can check out the slides
from this morning's lecture.

I'm pretty busy lately. There's a bunch of reading I've been needing to do, but I keep putting it off. I also want to exercise...I think I'll go home and do that in a few minutes.

I found this really cool tool my web host offers called Fantastico...it is rather fantastic. It allowed me to seamlessly install two different types of Wikis (phpWiki and TikiWiki) with 2 clicks of the mouse. I tried to install these last week and worked on it for hours without success...now I can do it in 5 minutes. Who knew? Perhaps I'll do a little writeup explaining what a Wiki is in the next few days. For now, just check out the definition in the Wikipedia (a cool resource in its own right).

Audioscrobbler

Check out Audioscrobbler. It keeps a record of the music you listen to, then if you go to the website it will recommend other artists you might like! It also allows you to find others who listen to music that is similar to yours...and then you can see what they're listening to that you're missing! Pretty cool, huh? Just another great example of Collaborative Filtering...

November 07, 2004

The Bird

Hit up the Bluebird last night. T's boyfriend, N, is in a band that was playing...check out Percival Potts. Watched the band, had a beer, talked with B about his theories on women and relationships, payed my tab, and headed home. Others were headed to another bar, but I was just so tired from the night before that I had to get some sleep.

Drinking heavily really takes its toll on me...or maybe it's the staying up late that kills me. All I know is that whenever I stay up until 2 or 3 and am drinking, the next day is a total loss. I napped for 2 hours yesterday and got next to nothing done. It did not feel good...I need to keep that in mind next time. T told me her theory that when you go to sleep after drinking your body is working so hard recovering that it does not allow you to reach REM sleep. I'm not sure how accurate that is, but could be at least partially true. If you don't get enough REM the results can be tremendous and immediate, leading to short temper and sleepiness.

Right now I'm waiting for another T to show up to school so we can prepare for the lecture we're going to teach tomorrow. That's right, as of tomorrow I will have taught my first college class. I guess I did that once in undergrad as well, but I only got 10 minutes to discuss a topic, now I get an hour and ten minutes! Should be fun...nerve wracking...but fun.

Update on what I'm reading:

Studying Those Who Study Us by Diana Forsythe

Design Research: Methods and Perspectives by Brenda Laurel

Implementation by Nick Montfort and Scott Rettberg

Interaction Design by Jennifer Preece, et al.

W3 School SQL Tutorial (Great free computer tutorials here!)

Et c'est tout.

November 06, 2004

Mish Mash

Long to-do list today...but I'm too tired to start. Why is it that one is far less motivated to do things at the times when they have the most time free? One could say that I wasted this morning away...I'd prefer to think I relaxed it away. However you interpret it, I have a lot to do.

Last night I went out with some friends from school. We started at the Irish Lion, an (obviously) Irish pub that has the best stew. Stew is great on cold days, great comfort food. (On a side note, I look forward to making stews and chilis and soups once I purchase a stock pot. If you come across one for cheap, let me know!) The Irish Lion also sells beer by the yard, that is they serve you a beer in a glass that is a yard long. They're hard to drink from, but fun nonetheless. I chose a half yard, because I wasn't into drinking an entire pitcher of beer in a single sitting.

We later moved on to The Upstairs Pub, which had no cover charge (always a plus). It's a cool bar because you can chill there, and there's no false pretenses looming in the air. That is, no one is overly dressed and trying to act cooler than they really are. At the same time, it's not a dive bar, so the people are at least a bit cool.

At the end of the night we jogged over to La Bamba's...the local late-night burrito joint. Reminded me of my old college days...how many nights did I spend in cheap-ass taco shops? How I long for one more California burrito at Lolita's, or a Jumbo from Roberto's II...the Mexican food is fine here, but it's no San Diego...

I bought a CD yesterday on a whim, and am so far *very* pleased with my purchase. Jimmy Eat World's "Futures" is awesome...go get it.

In online media news, I downloaded a novel this morning, Implementation. I believe it is only being released on the net. The first part of the first chapter is pretty entertaining. You should read it. Thanks to jill/txt.

Final note: to those of you on the West Coast (including Arizona), I'm now on East Coast time...Indiana doesn't change it's clocks. That means I'm 3 hours ahead of you...just FYI. Enjoy your weekends.

Futures

I always believed in futures,
I hope for better, in November,
Try the same booth, same lucky numbers,
It could be a cold night, for a lifetime.
Hey now, you can't keep saying endlessly,
'My Darling, how long until this sun burns me?'

Say hello to good times,
Trade up all the fast lines.
We close our eyes while the nickel and dime take the streets, completely.

I always could count on futures,
If things would look up, they'd look up,
Why's it so hard to find a balance,
Between living decent and the cold and real?
Hey now! What is it you think you see, my darling?
Now's the time to disagree...

Say hello to good times,
Trade up all the fast lines.
We close our eyes while the nickel and dime take the streets, completely.

Hey now, the past is told by those who win, my darling,
What matters is what hasn't been.
Hey now, we're wide awake and we're thinking, my darling,
Believe your votes can mean something!

-"Futures," Jimmy Eat World

November 03, 2004

Election Disenchantment

My team lost, and now I sulk. Well, not exactly. It seems that the American people have let their opinions out into the air, and it turns out that I don't agree with more than half of the country. It's almost embarrassing...and at some points I don't like the looks of things in this country of mine, but I guess I have to live with it for now.

Oh, and I'm not just talking about the presidency...how is it possible that 11 states voted to ban gay marriage? Jeez, some tolerance would be nice. Sometimes I miss living in liberal California, where it was possible to simply tune out the rest of the country...under the guise of a governor who swore to "pump me up." Perhaps all this turmoil will be just enough to help me test out life in other countries...we'll see about that.

In the end, I'm surprisingly optimistic. I walked around the office this morning humming patriotic tunes, which was nice. Things really aren't bad here in the ol' US of A, especially when taken in context. ..this morning in one of my classes we watched a movie about the Holocaust, and somehow that was able to make me feel better about my country and daily life. Sometimes we just have to thank our lucky stars.

November 02, 2004

Funny T-Shirts

This is more for my memory than yours... http://www.localcelebrity.net/

Election Excitement!

I'd be willing to lay down a hefty sum of money that says that at least 90% of all blogs that are published today somehow mention the presidential election that is taking place. It is a pretty exciting thing...this election. Both everything and nothing is on the line. No matter who wins, our everyday lives will go back to normal. I'm not here to debate that fact, because I'm sure some will...but I'll skirt right on past the details...

I arrived at my polling place at 7:40 this morning, and was out the door by 8:40. The room was filled with nerves, but it was fun for me. Of course, the party representatives all looked at me with glaring looks when I whipped out my California State driver's license...they all checked their books to make sure I wasn't breaking any federal laws. I just wanted to vote at a real machine instead of using the boring old absentee ballots. This was my first experience of voting at the machines...I really wanted to take a picture of myself doing it, but didn't work up the gumption to do so while I was in the booth.

The interface I used to vote was error-prone in many respects. I don't want to get too into the details, suffice it to say that it could use some work. Also, to our backs was a set of windows which looked out to the parking lot, which was a bit worrisome.

I'm glad I voted, and if you haven't done so, you should do it soon! The results will be in at some point tonight, probably long after I'm in bed. This whole East-Coast time thing is pretty weak when it comes to election results. Late night news in old Cali' is on really late here, and I probably won't be able to stay up for it...

In other news, a small sum of money is burning a hole in my pocket. I'll be good and not buy anything, but it's still fun to think about things that would be cool to buy on Ebay.

I have a lot of reading to do, and election results to research, so peace outside to you.

P.S. (I've never P.S.ed before in a blog entry, is that legal?) You can't buy alcohol in Indiana on election day until the polls close, isn't that strange?

October 31, 2004

Welcome Back, Josher

Came back from my weekend trip to Chicago this evening. When I first got to the airport in Indianapolis, I had no problem finding a parking spot. Well, that isn't quite true. First the machine wouldn't give me a ticket, then I couldn't actually find a spot for my car...but other than that I was fine. I chose to park in what they call "Economy Parking" which is one step down from "Tiger Parking," and two down from "Premiere Parking." At $5.50/day, I felt like Economy was a steal. Plus, what did the other lots offer for the added money? Well, for starters they would have dropped me off at the door of the airport, rather than across a bridge from it, then the driver would have taken my bags off of the shuttle for me. But the payoff came this evening, when I exited the airport.

As I walked outside with my huge bag (filled to the brim with brand new clothes :-D ) I realized that the line for the Economy Parking was amassing quickly. As people smoothly walked on to the Premiere shuttle, I was pushed and prodded and made it onto the second Economy shuttle that came my way. When I finally sat down with one cheek on the seat, I looked around and realize that this situation was great. See, while Premiere parking pampers it's customers with great service at a premium rate, Economy is made for a segment of the population that I really enjoy being with. Heaven forbid that humans should ever have to rub arms with one another! I think it's great to squish onto a bus with others who are just like me...each person teeming with enough stress to make them excited to get off the shuttle, but not so mad about the service. People like to think this world works as if "you get what you pay for." I think that people should look around and make the most of their situations...it may just turn out that paying less gets you a whole lot more than you bargained for...

Oh, and BTW, Happy Halloween!

October 30, 2004

A Trip to Chi-Town

I'm in Chicago visiting family. Good times. Last night I went out for all-you-can-eat sushi. It was so good. I really miss sushi when I'm in Bloomington. I guess it's not really their fault, they are just a bit too far away from water. Chicago definitely treated me well as far as fresh, uncooked fish goes. Tonight I went for some *world-famous* pizza at Gino's East Pizzeria (sp?). Also fantastic. Chicago is one of those places in the world where you can get any kind of food you want at any time of day. L.A. is kind of like that. N.Y.C. is definitely like that. I would like to live in a place like that, but probably just for a little bit. You lose a lot when you have that kind of freedom. These types of places tend to be crowded, and loud. It's the places where you can get some real peace of mind where the food isn't quite as varied...

I also went shopping today with Mom. Got some good clothes for cold weather. Shopping is one thing I really cannot do online. I'm always so worried that the clothes won't fit. Then when they don't I have to send them back and expect for my money to somehow show up on my credit card. It's just so troublesome. This is either a marketing problem, or one for the HCI community. Somehow the architecture of the internet has not allowed me to get comfortable with buying clothing...other things I will only buy on the internet (like technological goodies). Somebody has to get me to buy clothes online...maybe I can invent a really reassuring way of going about it. Time to start thinking about it...

Ok, that's enough for now. I'll update again when I get back home to good ol' Indiana.

October 27, 2004

Reading...

There is SO MUCH reading to do! I swear, all I do is read...here is a sampling of the things I've been reading lately:

• Emails
• A for-fun book
• Lots and lots of school reading
• Blogs
• Websites
• Some not for-fun nor for-school books
• Assignments
• Things I've written
• Computer Program Code
• Menus
• Street signs
• Newsgroups
• Tests (which others have taken)

What if all of this reading could be done really quickly and easily without any...you know...reading!? I think that would be really cool, except for the for-fun reading...since that's already done for fun. Scientists should really get on solving this reading problem. It seems like so much time is lost for so little information transfer...

In other news, E is currently working on an air hockey game for the DiamondTouch table. That should be really fun once he's done. I'm always impressed by good programming skillz. I gotta get me some of those. Or just buy a really good programmer for my very own.

I may try installing MythTV again, this time using KnoppMyth. I worked on getting this to work all summer, but never quite got there...I always have a hard time with Linux.

Gave out my first midterm grades yesterday. Subsequently, a bunch of people are now pissed. That's ok...if they can defend the answers they wrote, then I'll raise their grades. For now, I think my grading was fair.

Enough of this hubdrubbery. I'm going to get back to reading...

October 26, 2004

Cooltown and a Drawling

Today I turned in a paper about HP's Cooltown. You can read it if you'd like.

Also, check out this picture I made for my HCI/Design Class. Special thanks to E for the photoshop advice.

October 25, 2004

Background and Foreground

It's all about background and foreground. Attention is the key to everything we sense. There are so many sensations our body receives in a given instant that it would be wholly impossible to perceive them all at once. Right now you're looking at the computer screen, but the foreground is the word you're looking at, while the background is everything else: the rest of the computer screen, all that you see in the periphery, any sounds in the background, the feel of the mouse on your hand, and the weight of your clothes on each inch of skin.

There is at least one sensation that occurs nearly endlessly throughout the day, and you probably have never even noticed it...I bet your tongue is resting against the roof of your mouth right now. Never noticed that before, have you? It's one of a million things that your brain chooses to store in the background, one of those sensations that you never notice.

Keep a lookout for important things floating in the background. They are the essence of life, and the "little things" that really make a difference.

October 24, 2004

Amazon.com

Anybody notice the layout change on Amazon.com? It's subtle, but definitely different.

Here's how it looked on June 17

And here's what you see today

Some Random Randoms

Turns out my blog is leading to some thought in others...that's a plus. Just had a mighty fine debate with B about beauty on the web. He made a very valid correction to what I said earlier: Style sheets did not cause the web to become more beautiful. Rather, added beauty on the web caused the invention of Style Sheets and other tools to allow for more control. The technology does not invent the need, rather, the need invents the technology! Great stuff...

I watched the first two episodes of Dead Like Me in the last two days. Pretty interesting plot line. I won't ruin it for anyone, you should just try to see an episode or two. It makes some deep theological and philosophical claims about life and death and the afterlife, etc., but leaves just enough ambiguity so that most viewers will *probably* not be offended. And though it deals with death, it is not completely depressing, which is nice.

Bought a little DVD player yesterday. Needed something that would play burnt DVDs. This one seems to work, and was only $41 at Best Buy, so I figured it was worth a shot. I also figure that this one will break just in time for me to get a real job in a few years, so I'll be able to afford one with nicer features. Guess I shouldn't count my chickens before they're hatched, but I will do so anyway.

Still looking for a nice recliner to put in my room. If you see any let me know. I don't want one that's big and bulky and old school La-Z-Boyish...but their newer stuff looks pretty hip. If I had real money I would look into outfitting my space with some Herman Miller, but that will have to wait...

I'll end with an update of what I'm reading now...

For fun:
The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell

For school:
Studying Those Who Study Us: An Anthropologist in the world of Artificial Intelligence, by Diana Forsythe

Design Research: Methods and Perspectives, by Brenda Laurel (layout of this book is fantastic...really made for designers...)

Designing the User Interface..., by Ben Shneiderman et al.

Attractive Things Work Better, by Don Norman

The Cost of Frustration, by Jared Spool

The Computer for the 21st Century, by Mark Weiser

Ambient Wood: Demonstration of a digitally enhanced field trip for school children, by Yvonne Rogers Et al.

Phew...that's a lot of reading... ;-)

October 23, 2004

More Hint, Hints...

These are clearly for my own bookkeeping...here are some things I would like:

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Malcolm Gladwell
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers
Super Size Me
Logitech io2 Digital Writing Pen, this may be a passing trend though...

To be further updated...

October 22, 2004

The Beautiful Internet

What do you think of my blog's layout? I recently received a comment about it, but won't say whether it is positive or negative. I must admit, for better or for worse, that the skeleton for this site is basically the default offered by MovableType. I've added some chotchkies here and there, but it's mostly unchanged. So there go my creativity points...But really, what is it that you pay attention to when you look at a website? Is it the layout, or the words?

I think the internet has changed greatly over the last few years. In the beginning it was all about content, simply publishing words. More recently a lot of emphasis has been put on creativity in how things look. This change has mainly taken place because before it was not possible to have a lot of control over how webpages looked. Since the advent of style sheets, the ability to control layout has improved by leaps and bounds. The web is now beautiful, but is it better than before?

This question is a prime topic for HCI study. Surely, the content that is on the internet is of lower quality than in the late 1990s, IMHO. Since most websites look so nice, there is a lot of pressure to only upload pages that uphold rules of creativity and usability, but not necessarily content. I know that I rarely (if ever) build informational websites, because I do not have the time or motivation to make the pages look good.

In the end users of the internet win and lose. We lose much valuable content in exchange for usability and beauty. As in all design related fields, we must deal with tradeoffs. I'm not going to make any statements about whether or not we're better off now than we were in the past, but it is important to realize that these questions are arguable. Not all technology necessarily improves with time. Sometimes it just takes on new forms.

October 20, 2004

The Tipping Point

I started rereading one of my favorite books this evening. It's called The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, by Malcolm Gladwell. It got me thinking in terms of changing the world again. The tipping point is the moment at which a relatively small phenomenon becomes huge. This "tip" can be caused by a whole host of things. A classic, and fun, example happened in the mid 90s when the Hush Puppies brand of shoes went from near extinction to extreme popularity. It turns out this revolution was started by less than 100 hip kids from NYC. All of a sudden all of the major designers featured Hush Puppies on the runways of Paris.

This book is great because it puts some focus on the little things in life. Life really is based on the details. Something as insignificant as a new haircut can change one's entire outlook. A recent tipping point occurred in my life within the past few weeks. Making the switch from Blogspot to MovableType has caused an explosion in the amount of blogging I do. These things happen all the time! Look out for tipping points in your life. If you're aware of them, you're more likely to figure out how to make them happen! Oh, and buying and reading this book wouldn't hurt anyone either.

On to newer things...IBM is awesome! Turns out a problem I had is under warranty...so they're sending me out a brand new piece of hardware, completely free. Oh, and they called me within 10 minutes of me posting my maintenance request online...after business hours. Great service makes me smile. It's almost like getting what you pay for. :-P

Big shout out to my Mom, who sent me a nice pair of running pants for the upcoming winter season...I'll definitely be protected from the elements! Thanks Mom!

There was something else I wanted to say...but it's not coming to me at the moment, I hate when that happens. Well, it'll just give me a chance to write again tomorrow...to sleep I go.

Senior Citizens

Did some usability studies today. Some would actually call it usamajility. Our user group for this project (and the next) is the senior citizen population. I have really liked working with older people. At first I was a bit apprehensive, but getting to know them feels kinda good. They all seem pretty happy for the most part. Of course they are dealing with disabilities such as blindness, memory loss, and a host of other issues, but they still seem pretty content with life. That's rather reassuring.

The retirement community we've been visiting seems pretty cool, in a summer campy kind of way. There are a bunch of activities, and 3 meals a day. Plus you get to hang out with all your friends. Maybe I'm a little bit screwed up in the head, but it all looks kind of exciting.

Photo blurred to keep all individuals anonymous. (I'm the one in brown.)

Went to dinner this evening with a bunch of grad students from the program and the main professor. He brought up the idea of us in 5 years, becoming successful Interaction Designers (IxDers) and coming back to tell the students how successful they will be. What a great outlook! I am excited to be able to pass on knowledge, and the thought of a professor who looks forward to that is refreshing. So often I think that professors are too caught up in their own research to realize that they are here to educate the next generation. I guess the problem is circular since their profs paid no attention to them. Either way, I'm excited about being an influencer...so I can't wait to be in a leadership position.

Ok, I'm hopelessly tired. Big project due in 72 hours, so I may lose sleep in the coming days. I'll catch up while I'm still able to...

Photoshop is just too cool...

October 18, 2004

An Intro to Blogging

Hey all, not much interesting going on today, so I thought I'd write a little primer on the world of blogging. (How should one pronounce 'primer'? I lean towards the 'prymer' pronunciation, while I have heard 'prim-er' used often as well.)...Let's get started. Some of you may have no idea what the word 'blog' means. It's pretty simple really. Back in the early days when blogging was invented, online journals were called 'Weblogs'. You'll notice that the last part of the URL for this page is /weblog/. That's kind of like a shout out to history...in a way. Since technologically minded people are always on the lookout for an acronym or abbreviation, the 2 syllable noun 'weblog' was shortened to its 1 syllable contemporary: 'blog'. Enough of this history, let's get to the action. Since you're obviously already in this blog reading game, you should have a plan of action, and I intend to suggest some moves for you.

First off, I recommend using an aggregation service. Basically, these services allow you to save a list of your favorite blog sites, then instead of visiting each blog you like to read, you can go to this site and it will show all of the blogs that have been updated. The aggregator I use is Bloglines. Give it a shot, it's pretty easy to use, and really convenient.

Next, you should start a blog of your own! Having a blog is great for many reasons. First, keeping a personal journal is a great way to keep track of the things that are important in your life. Also, it's a great way to keep in touch with people. The one-to-many format allows you to keep in touch with a lot of people while exerting minimal effort (especially in comparison to more conventional types of communication). Most importantly, having your own blog makes the world of blogging more powerful! Imagine if you were the only one who owned a telephone. This highly powerful technology would be rendered completely useless! The more users of the system, the more powerful it becomes! So go get a phone! (oops, I mean blog.)

There are a ton of free services out there for blogging. The simplest system I have seen is at Blogger. They make signing up and starting your blog really easy to do. I recommend starting there. Another possible starting place is Xanga, which is a little more advanced, but has some extra features not offered on Blogger. You can also check out LiveJournal, which also has its advantages. Since they're all free services, feel free to try them all out and see which one you like best.

The system I use is called MovableType. It is really powerful, but targets a more advanced user. There's a bunch of stuff in my system that I don't comprehend at all. If you have some server space to play with and access to Perl and MySQL databases, as well as some time to tinker with settings, then check out MovableType, it might be for you.

I'm sure there's a bunch of stuff I'm leaving out, but I think I promised a simple primer, so I don't want to bore you. Before I stop I must add that there are many possible uses for your blog. You can have a personal journal that can be accessed from anywhere, and nobody needs to know about it; or you can have a public journal that is shared with friends, family, and coworkers to keep everyone in the loop; or you can track your progress on a long-term task using a blog (for example, you can keep notes on what kind of exercise you do each day, or make updates on a particular project). Whatever your reason, you should try blogging, you may find a new hobby that you really enjoy! After you start your blog, be sure to send the web address to me!

October 17, 2004

Shapiro's Deli

Went to Indianapolis this morning for lunch with J...I'll let him have some semi-anonymity, despite the picture. We went to Shapiro's Deli, apparently it's kinda famous in this area. It was pretty good...my first real corned beef sandwich in a while. Mmm mmm good food, and good to see J. His theory is that people who live in major cities in the midwest are neighbors. I guess I can agree with that. Check out the picture of us in front of the deli...who are those ladies? Couldn't they see we were taking a picture?

Photo taken by J

My next project for HCI/Design is due Friday. That'll mean a pretty busy week, but our project is coming together quite well. Those senior citizens would be rather pleased with our invention...

Right now I'm watching Sealab 2021 with R, J (a different one), and D. It's a really funny show, and each episode is only 10 minutes long. That's my kind of show...I have nooo attention span. Back to the show...

October 16, 2004

I500 Project 1

Here's what I turned in for my first project in I500, in case you care. I think I managed to make it as copy proof as possible. If you would like to run this program, let me know and I'll send you a copy you can execute. The unix entry syntax is as follows:

$ perl proj1.pl test.txt writefile.txt

Where 'perl' is the name of the programming language, proj1.pl is the program, test.txt is the input file, and writefile.txt is the output file.

Pretty nifty, eh? ;-)

Autumn in Indiana

Went for a drive out to Brown County State Park this morning. I must say, it was rather breathtaking. Mid-October is the peak of the "changing of the colors" season. I can't think of a more descriptive term for that. Basically, all the trees have changed from green to yellow, red, orange, or some mix of these colors. It's really cool. I wonder how the trees decide which color to change to? Perhaps they randomly choose, or maybe they try to guess which will be the most popular color this season...maybe Cosmopolitan Magazine has a "for Trees" edition, to help them choose. However it happens, the trees end up in a random spattering of colors, and it is quite a treat to see. I'll work on getting all of my pictures up on the internet, but for now you'll have a few to choose from in this entry.

BTW, this photo has been edited.

I watched "Goodbye, Lenin" last night. It's a German flick about this guy who has to hide the fact that East Germany is completely changed after the fall of the Berlin Wall from his sick mother. I really liked it.

The best part came during the special features on the DVD. I found out that there were all sorts of special effects throughout the movie which I never even noticed! I think it is great when they are able to do that. We sometimes call it the magic of TV. Others would call it Film Imagination.

The place I rented the movie from was pretty cool. $3 for all movies. The downside is that they don't take a credit card, but when I was short by $4, the guy said I could just pay him back later. Then the guy was having trouble putting my info in the computer, so he just told me that he trusted me, so I could just bring the movies back whenever. I realize that living in a smaller town is pretty cool when situations like this occur.

Got my car fixed yesterday...one of the windshield wipers was not wiping. A bolt was loose, so it was like a 2 minute fix for the guy at Hyundai. Wipers are mandatory when it rains every day...which has been the case, except for today.

I found the *best* new place in town to eat. It's a Cajun restaurant called Yats. The menu changes every day and all of the food is $5 for a huge portion of awesome eating. I've been there 3 times in the last 5 days. Meal 1: Etoufee, Meal 2: Gumbo, Meal 3: Jambalaya...mmmm Good.

Time to work on my next program. Hope everyone's having a nice weekend!

October 15, 2004

"Resolution Man"

So I skipped yesterday as far as blogging goes. I'm disappointed in myself. Before that I had been so diligent for nearly a week. I hope I did not lose many from my legions of fans. But seriously, why are you all so demanding!!?? "Josh, you need to update more often," said one reader. Jeeez! I'll try. (Aforementioned reader and comment do not really exist.)

It's seems like one of my classes is damn near ready for an uprising. It seems like everyone is complaining about both its difficulty and relevance. In my opinion, the class is both not difficult and rather relevant to HCI. I mean, if you hope to work with computers and the people who build programs (computer scientists), you better understand how that machine works and how to build those programs, at least in theory. We need to gain respect in this field, not cop out when it comes to the things our colleagues are masters at. It's important that HCI/Designers take CS classes and CompScientists take HCI/Design classes. This is a major step in leveling the playing field.

The real problem is me. I generally do not like to be part of conflict...you could say I'm a resolution man. But now, when I'm rather alone on a topic, and fearing that people around me are about to blow up, do I really want to piss everybody off by not agreeing with them? On this one, I think I'll say...maybe. If they want to complain, that is fine with me, but if the class gets any easier I will get suplementary work from the professor so that I can advance my own knowledge.

A potential problem with this blog being public is shown in this situation. If I'm on the other side of the fence with respect to a bunch of people in my program, and I'm posting this opinion online, where they all can see it, then I'm asking for trouble. I'll have to live with that, because writing about these conflictions is helping me to reflect on my decisions, thereby solidifying them in my mind. Plus, I generally run with a crowd anyway, so being completely alone on something is not likely.

I'll keep you all updated on the "drama"...

October 13, 2004

Presidential Ties

In these last weeks before the presidential election, everybody is looking everywhere for reasons to get people to vote for their team. In this matter, I think symbolism is very important. Has anybody noticed the ties worn by the candidates during the three debates? In case you weren't paying attention, I'll give you an update:

Debate 1: Bush: blue tie, Kerry: red tie
Debate 2: Bush: blue, Kerry: red
Debate 3: Bush: red, Kerry: red
(also for the record, the moderator in the 3rd debate wore a red, white, and blue tie...probably to be unbiased. I didn't notice what the other moderators wore.)

What are these ties saying about the opponents? I'm not sure. Notice that in the first two debates, the presidential nominees wore ties opposite to their "party colors." In this third debate GDub has decided to buck the trend...I'm not sure what this means, but I am sure there is a message to be derived. I'll leave that for you...I have reading to do.

Paper: Social Informatics & my career

As promised, here's my latest paper considering the question: How will Social Informatics affect my career?

October 12, 2004

Setting the Curve

I experienced something this morning that I have not experienced in a long long time. The other day I wrote about the first test I've taken in grad school, and it turns out that my score set the curve. Wow, that hasn't happened since high school. There is a certain sense of pride that one gets by doing better than all others in a given situation. I think this is a built in function in our brain, like laughing. Anyway, it does feel good, but the important part is that I shouldn't let this success go to my head. I worked hard to understand the material, and will need to do the same for my next test.

So I kinda feel this urge to get into the Open-Source programming community. I am often very uncertain when it comes to my programming skills, but I think if I really get involved in some project I can hone my abilities by working on something I really care about. So the question is: Which comes first the programming skills or the difficult projects? In any case, I'm going to look into participating in the construction of Sun's Looking Glass desktop environment. It seems cool and new, and perhaps a good place to pick up Java, a rather important programming language.

I finished my paper. I'd say I did alright. I'll post it up for you all to read after class is over. (Wouldn't want my classmates to steal my work before I turn it in...like they would.)

By the way, this book may be a cool one to own, but I wouldn't know at this point. (hint, hint ;-) )

October 11, 2004

Dinner Discussions

I really have to write a paper, but I'll make a quick entry just to keep myself happy...

Just had a discussion with E and W over some good lasagna about the role of parenting and the ability for one to be responsible for their situation in society. Sounds rather complex, and it is...especially when you hash it out at the level of detail (or non-detail) that we try to reach.

I won't tell who was on what side of the issue, but will say that these types of discussions do come up quite often in our house, and E and I tend to share opinions, while W seems to counter our thoughts...or perhaps we're countering his thoughts...whatever. Often it may come off as if E and I are attacking W, but I hope he does not feel this is the case. I respect his viewpoints...well, that might be taking it a bit far...I respect the fact that he thinks about his viewpoints and considers those of others, at least to a point. The goal of these conversations is not agreement, at least I don't think, and so we're accomplishing our goal. In the end, if we all agreed on everything, this world would not be a very interesting place, so it's definitely important to listen to others...even if you don't like what they're saying.

Approtec

Check out this company: Approtec

Pretty cool company, me thinks. Perhaps if an internship opens up and I can get some departmental (or other) funding, I can do some work with them...just keeping my options open.

October 10, 2004

Going Public

I've been waiting all day to write an entry. I should learn to just satiate my need to blog and get it over with. There is really no reason that I deserve this break. I have been working now for nearly 6 hours and have been able to produce a page and a half of notes for my I501 Social Informatics paper. The thing that really sucks is that I thought I would enjoy the topic immensely, but now that I sit down to contemplate the task I am somewhat bored. Here's the question: How will Social Informatics affect my career?

Well Josh, you say, isn't it blatantly obvious? Not only will SI build a framework for your future designs, but it will work to define the boundaries in which your users expect to work. I know, I know...it seems so simple, but at the same time I cannot for the life of me think of interesting examples to write about. Blech...I give up. Perhaps I'll throw together a second stage outline in a bit, and give myself a chance to write it up tomorrow...

So the publication of this media has commenced. Before today I had been keeping my blog under wraps, as a secret forum in which I could practice my writing skills. Now it gets interesting. I think I'm hooked on adding entries, but now that others will be reading, they'll have to be higher quality.

One could say that I am in a Beta phase of the project. The work is not ready for mass publication, but you can use it at your own risk. Either way, if you've found your way here, thanks for visiting. Leave a comment on what you think and I'll approve it if I know you. At this point, there should only be about 2 people who know about the site, so remember, I know where you live.

As time progresses, I will invite others to view the site, eventually leading to mass publication on the School of Informatics Grad Student Blogs page. At that point I should be sufficiently hooked on blogging, and creating interesting writings regularly. We'll see how long it will take to get there.

I have decided to think of rules to guide my writing. I'm sure more will pop up over time, but I have come up with my first:

If I break that rule, then I'm only beating myself over my own head. Calling oneself dumb in front of others is never a good proposition. Let them make their own judgements. If you are bored by me, no one is forcing you to come back. More rules to come...

Hey, if you've never been to Chipotle.com check it out. Pretty interesting website. I don't think many people are using as creative means as the designers of that site.

Check out the Anoto Pen. If you decide to buy one of these for me as a gift, I would be immensely happy. I just think it's a really cool technology, with major implications for future designs. I'll comment further at a later date.

This is getting a bit long, and at this point I think I could have written most of my 3-5 page paper. I'll see you tomorrow (or perhaps sooner if I get bored with my work...).

October 09, 2004

el grande lebowski

"Jewish day of rest. Means I don't work, I don't drive a car, I don't fucking ride in a car, I don't handle money, I don't turn on the oven, and I sure as shit don't fucking roll!" -Walter, The Big Lebowski

Control yourselves, the 'f' word is alright, as long as it's in context.

Great movie, that's all I'll say. See if you haven't.

Welcome to MovableType, HCI > CS

So this is my first "real" entry utilizing the MovableType System. I guess it's not much different from blogspot, thus far, except for the sense of accomplishment after installing it on my own system. Plus what my actual page looks like is completely editable by me, meaning I'm not held back by the juggernaut that is blogger. So in a sense, I am free, as if I'm not already free enough these days. Somebody really needs to reach out an put a harness back around my neck...err, waist...and get me back in line. Even school doesn't seem like a leash. I guess it's for the best though...

Anyway, I was having a talk with E, one of the roommates, on the way to the mall today. I think I would classify him (as well as the other roommate, W) as a hardcore Computer Science guy. This is not to say he is not well rounded, in fact, quite the opposite. But well-roundedness is not the point. As we were driving he brought up a relatively obscure point involving foreach loops in programming languages. Now, while I'm no hardcore CS guy, I still understand the concept of foreach. This kind of loop is used when you have a list of objects and want to go through it and do a certain action to each object. The example we discussed had to do with editing single pixels on a digital picture. The syntax of this loop is as follows:

If you don't get it, don't worry about it...because this is exactly my point. The issue at hand in our conversation was something that, in essense, is a very important issue for computer scientists to consider. Those who program your software should understand the ins and outs of foreach loops, and possible ways to improve on them. But for the users, this stuff just doesn't matter. That's what makes it hard for me to think about. In general, if it doesn't affect the people who will actually be using the program, then to hell with it, I don't care.

I'm not saying that as a student of HCI I will ignore programming concepts, in fact I'll embrace them. Without explicit understanding of how computer systems and programs work, I would never be a successful HCI/Designer, so much love to the people on the techie side of this game.

I'm just saying that a lot more work needs to be done on the HCI/Design side than on the programming side, IMHO, so I'll let the many get on with the programs, while the few attempt to improve the nasty situation we all find ourselves in.

This site helped me with Movable Type

This is a great site for help with Movable Type

http://www.mattmaxwelldesign.com/mtforbeginners/

First Entry on Movable Type

This is my first entry on www.ev9.org/weblog...if you're seeing this, then my experimenting worked, go me!

October 08, 2004

First test in Grad School

I have my first test of graduate school today: I500. I’ll have to recite all my knowledge about topics such as the history of computing, computer architecture, how computers do math, Boolean operations, the Perl programming language, UNIX, and a bunch of other stuff. I think I’m ready…I’ve studied by building a pretty good cheat sheet, if I do say so myself.

I watched Fahrenheit 9/11 last night with the HCI crew. It wasn’t the first time I’ve seen it, but it was much better than the first time. The point that was really driven home this time was that the poorest people in our country are the ones who actually defend the system that manages to screw them. That just seems strange to me. Sometimes I think that maybe I should join the military. I’m sure my formal academic training could apply in some way. I just don’t know if I have the pride to do such a thing, however. I’m ashamed of a lot of the things we’ve done recently as a country, and would not want to be viewed as a piece of the system that implements such embarrassing actions. But that’s just me…much love to those who are serving, you have more conviction than I.

On a completely different note, I’m listening to Radiohead’s “Amnesiac” album for the first time. Actually, it’s the first time I’ve ever listened to a Radiohead album at all. I like it, it’s not really something you can dance or sing to, more something to just bob my head to. There’s a time and a place for that kind of music.

I think I’m having a string of boring blogs…I’ll try to get out of this funk over the weekend, but no promises. I don’t think anyone is reading anyway!

October 05, 2004

Emotional Rollercoaster

Man, this evening has been somewhat of an emotional rollercoaster. I can’t really define what it has been more of…work life, personal life…Kinda like 2 bombs dropping at the exact same time. I kinda deserved a kick in the rear though, life seemed too easy for a while there.

This will have been my second post of the day. Go me! I guess the trick is to wake up and write an entry, then there’s less pressure for the rest of the day. I’ll probably ignore my own advice as soon as tomorrow morning rolls around.

Topic change…I wonder if others ignore their problems as much as I do. It just seems so easy for me to think about everything save for what is truly important in my life. Fech…I don’t want to talk about it.

This has been a weak entry so far…let’s keep it up. Go red! Woooo!

I need new clothes. Not because the old ones are old and tattered, but because it’s effing cold outside. It was 39 degrees when I woke up according to weather.com. That’s freaking freezing. Layers are going to be key, but I also must look super stylish. Oh, and I don’t mean Midwest flannel shirt and cargo pants stylish, I mean super-hip chic. We’ll see what I end up with…the mall here is pretty weak. Perhaps when I go up to Chicago in a few weeks I’ll be able to find some sweet threads.

So, what are you going to be for Halloween? It’s about time to start thinking about that. The coolest idea I’ve heard so far was a tomato. This girl wanted to fashion her getup such that when she spun around, her costume “poofed out” and looked like a Roma tomato. That was intriguing. I’m far less creative however, so I’ll probably throw something together last minute. (My favorite costume thus far in my life has to be my 5^th grade “Static Cling Man.” I woke up on Halloween morning and stuck socks and underwear all over my clothes. Man, was I cool?)

Ok, enough soup for you. I’m out. Peace.

Double Entries

I must say, I’m absolutely impressed that people find time to update their blogs many times in a single day. It’s great for the readers, but how do these people find the time? It’s not that it’s really that hard to do, it’s just that once I update my blog, I generally forget about it completely for the rest of the day. To each his (or her) own I guess.

So I looked at the little Microsoft calendar a minute ago and realized that it’s my half birthday! That means that you have exactly 6 months to finish building my birthday present…better get to it. Does anybody out there celebrate half birthdays anymore? I feel like when you’re 6 your half birthday is of utmost importance. You’re like, “Yeah, I’m 6 and a half, so I’m older than you.” Then the other kid is like, “Oh yeah, we’ll I’m gonna be 6 and three quarters, and my older brother could beat your dad up!” Ahh to be in first grade again…or was it second? Either way, I plan on celebrating my Half (ooh, I’ve created jargon) to its fullest extent.

I’ll try to post again later today…but chances are I’ll forget about blogging just as soon as I post this one…

BTW, here’s a shout out to Tami, the sister of all sisters. “What up girl, whhaaaat whhaaat?” (That’s not even an inside joke…)

-j

October 04, 2004

It's getting cold...

It's getting cold...those around me would probably say it's not too bad for Indiana, but for me it's just getting a bit too nippy for comfort. It'll get into the mid 60s today...perhaps I'm whining, but it just seems a little unfair that the high will reach 83 today at home. That's a striking 18 degree differential! I know the differential will increase as time goes by, which frightens me. We'll see how I hold up with respect to weather...for now I'll just stay sick.

Speaking of which, being sick sucks. This time the sickness has come and gone rather quickly, which is good news because I really want to get back to my exercise and work routine.

I wanted to talk a little about peoples' folk understanding when it comes to scientific issues. I feel that it's a problem throughout our society. For example, when I told each of my parents that I was sick, they were sure it was due to the fact that the weather is a bit colder here. In actuality, I'm sure I just caught some sort of virus in this new environment I'm spending time in. Is sickness caused by weather change? In some cases, yes. In my case, this time, no.

If you don't understand how viruses work, then it is easy to take up a folk science mentality. Likewise, if you don't understand stem cells, you're likely to develop a religious outlook on the subject. Now, I do not want this forum to turn into a place to discuss presidential politics-we all know there are far too many pundits these days anyway-however, I will say that GeeDub is a rather ig'nant mofo when it comes to the topic of stem cell science. Does he not realize that these cells, which come from nearly immediately post-conception fetuses, can become almost any kind of cell in the body? This means that these cells can be used to treat everything from neural deformities to cancer. Awesome, no? YES! Ok, enought politico-science punditry from me.

Ok, I'm going to bail, lots on my plate this week. Big test friday, paper due next tues, programming assignment due next mon. Alright, so there isn't much on my plate this week...but I must prepare for next week at some point!

Current books, in case you care:

Interaction Design to teach to silly undergrads

Interface Culture to learn about the history and future of the interfaces of our lives

Smart Mobs is kinda on the back-burner, but I would like to dive back in when I get some time

Distributed Work ... because a little Social Informatics (formerly DCog in my mind) never hurt 'nobody

learn.perl.org is definitely a must

September 25, 2004

Bloglines

So, this whole blogging thing has been rather one-sided lately. You see, I read them all the time these days. I’ve been using this site called Bloglines, which takes all my blogs and puts them into a list, then lets me know when new posts are added to each. Cool, huh? I no longer need to surf to each site and check if there is a new post, because this site does so implicitly. But wait, there’s more! Bloglines also recommends blogs for me to check out based on the ones that are in my list. They give me a long list of recommended blogs, and allow me to choose the ones I want. It’s like going to the bookstore and getting to choose all the books that others think I want for free!

There’s a lot to be said for this Collaborative Filtering. Amazon and eBay use it, but imagine if it were used ubiquitously in the real world. You go to the grocery store and your handheld agent tells you that grapes are on sale this week based on the fact that you’ve bought them in the past. Ooh, even better, your agent tells you that your friend’s birthday is coming up, and here is a list of things that she will probably enjoy based on her Amazon and eBay shopping and surfing habits, not to mention her propensity to go into particular brick-and-mortar stores on a regular basis. Now, there are privacy issues here, but security is a problem for the security people, and I like to consider myself an idea person, not held back by the details.

New tangent: Happy(?) Yom Kippur. The holiday has led to a lot of introspection about religion, my new life, and my old one too. To get all this thinking off my mind, I’ve decided to go to an alternative service today, as well as to a service project. It will probably be in a food bank, but could be planting trees or something like that for all I know.

Another new tangent: I just finished my first major Design (with a capital D) assignment in grad school. I think my group’s work turned out spectacularly well. I only started to feel that way a few days ago. Before that I thought our solution was shaky at best. We put a lot of trust in the technology in order to support our users. I think that’s a good method, because there’s no use to hold good ideas back, especially considering the rate at which technology is improving each day.

This weekend will be dedicated to fasting and reading. Fasting started last night and ends tonight. Reading started last night and ends sometime out in the oblivion. Care to know what I’m reading? I’ll post links:

Smart Mobs by Howard Rheingold

Interface Culture by Steven Johnson

What is Social Informatics and Why Does it Matter? By Rob Kling

Computers as Social Networks by Barry Wellman

Gates of Repentance by Chaim Stern (never realized this book had a single author!)

Oh, and probably some http://learn.perl.org

September 07, 2004

My new iMac

This morning something very interesting happened. I felt bad. Though I wasn't sure I should have. As I was hanging out in a computer lab at school, I overheard someone (who was yelling) say that he just bought a *brand new* Apple iMac G5 on Amazon.com for $110. As fast as I could, I surfed on over to Amazon.com to see for myself if his claim was true. It turns out that it was, and just as I pressed the purchase button, they were out of stock. Now, he got the totally souped up one with a 20 inch screen, 1.8 gig CPU, 160 gig hard drive, 512 ram, etc. I decided I didn't need all these features, so I tried for the one 2 steps down the ladder. Surprisingly, Amazon.com let me buy the computer for $110. I was dumbfounded. Who sells a computer that isn't even out yet for $110? Then I started to feel really bad. I guess I shouldn't care that I swindled Amazon. They're a huge company who can afford to lose $1000 on an item. I'm a poor college student who would love to have a new iMac. Still, it didn't feel good.

As the day went on, my bad feelings were able to subside. This evening I got an email from Amazon saying that a mistake had been made, and they are unable to sell the computer at that price. Damn! Now I'm mad...despite the feeling that I felt bad this morning. The computer is now $1294...

Wow...I'm tired...this was going to be a really good update. Sorry to disappoint. Must come back again later.

September 04, 2004

The Word "I"

Of the six previous entries I have made on this Blogger system, 3 start with the word "I." At first, I found this slightly odd, and perhaps problematic. It's not that I am bothered by a little self-indulgence or some egotistical writing, but really, is the blog experience really supposed to be all about one's self? In response to this question I'll try to write this entire entry without starting a sentence with the word "I."

Tonight we had a Chili party here at apartment 807. It was cool. Part of the concept was to intrigue those of the Indian persuasion to come over. E, one of my housemates went to lunch with an Indian girl who said that Chili reminded her of some types of curry dishes, and therefore reminded her of home. As it turned out, not many people showed up, and those that did come were not from my year. It was all the people from the class ahead of mine, which I didn't mind in the least. They're all settled and kind of have the program figured out. It's comforting to know they're still around and enjoyed last year. Anyway, the chili was good, and we'll have enough to eat for the next few weeks.

There's a lot I want to say about my experiences here so far, but I feel like it's not coming out cleanly tonight. Probably because it's so late at night. Perhaps I'll sleep and try this again tomorrow. Good night...

(Remember the challenge about not starting any sentences with "I?" I did it!!!! ;-)

August 30, 2004

A Short Autobiography

I was born in a blizzard, so say my parents. It was a cold April night in Chicago when my parents ate a last minute dinner of Chinese food, just in time for my life to begin. Needless to say, to this day I am fond of both international cuisine and cold weather (well, at least the former).

The first few years of life were tough, if I remember correctly. As if learning an entire language and going through half of Piaget’s stages was not enough, the springtime temperature changes in the Windy City just proved too rigorous for my young respiratory system. So me and the ‘rents packed our bags and headed west, to an altogether insanely sunny place called Phoenix, apparently the king of all cities. Long story short, we soon moved again after the birth of my sister, Tami, and followed the herds even further west, to a mythical (yet highly overpopulated) place called California.

Skip ahead to high school, where I ran and studied in the suburban town of Chino Hills, 30 miles west of the City of Angels (Los Angeles, duh). By the by, Chino Hills has a new claim to fame, aside from housing the infamous Snoop Doggy Dogg: if you’re a fan of the hit Fox TV show The OC, you’ll be pleased to realize that the character from the “ghetto” comes from Chino, the neighboring city to my hometown (which is not a ghetto by any means).

Anyway, after high school I attended the University of California at San Diego and after a year or so decided to study the field of Cognitive Science, a great major for someone who has NO idea what they want to do after college. After taking a few required HCI courses, I decided to dive in head first and take a class called Cognitive Engineering. In this class I fell in love with a process called Contextual Design (motivated by the book Contextual Design by Hugh Beyer and Karen Holtzblatt) and built a prototype of a piece of software called PictureThis!, which would be used to organize digital photo collections. I loved this class for three distinct reasons:

1) I worked harder than I had in any class before and had an amazing time in the process
2) I was part of a team that created a piece of work that was far greater than I ever could have expected
3) And finally, the bonds I formed with my teammates still exist, and these were people I did not know at all at the outset of the project.

The results of this project led me to the decision to continue my study of HCI because I would like to professionally create friendly, efficient, effective, and (most importantly) humble products for people to use in their everyday lives.

Now, fast forward to the present. I have relocated from a slightly conservative city (SD) in a very liberal state (CA) to a liberal town (Bloomington) in a slightly conservative state (IN). The differences between here and home abound, and it will no doubt take time to become accustomed to life in the Midwest, but at the same time I am excited beyond belief about this opportunity. How often does one get a chance to completely start over, with only the hint of a future occupation in mind? Rarely. Nine days after trekking more than 2500 miles, I find myself in the perfect academic program: one that will demand that I get my hands dirty and experience the challenges and rewards of real design. I can’t wait.

August 29, 2004

I stand here in a towel

I stand here in a towel, brooding with things to say. There is so much on my mind, but at the same time, so little.

I do my best thinking in the shower. The shower is probably a place of intense thought for many people. It’s not often you’re allowed to be alone, naked, relaxed, and wet, but the world would probably be a much better place if this was not the case. Anyway, this isn’t what’s really on my mind, so let’s get to business.

What is the difference between ubiquity and pervasiveness? This question has been floating, unformed, in my head for the past few days, but now it is time to come out. I turn to my trusty American Heritage Collage dic•tion•ar•y for some definitive answers:

u•biq•ui•ty n. Existence or apparent existence everywhere at the same time; omnipresence.

per•va•sive adj. Having the quality or tendency to pervade or permeate; the pervasive odor of garlic. –per•va•sive•ness n.

I’m not sure if I like that definition of pervasive, it just seems so negative. I guess I see a difference between the two, though I’m not sure if it’s only because one is a noun and the other an adjective. Something which is ubiquitous is present everywhere you look, while a pervasive object is moving throughout a world such that at some point it may become ubiquitous. Maybe I’m just more confused now…

Time to get crackin’. There is just so much to do. I have learned that moving to a new town far from home is an expensive and time-stealing proposition. I have spent more time and money in the last week buying things I already own, but could not fit into a car. On tap today is a car wash, bike, and desk. At some point I think I’ll try to study for the first time in 2 months. It’s going to be hard to get back into the swing of things, but I guess that’s the challenge for everyone. Ok, into Bloomingtown I go…

August 26, 2004

Immediately Inspired

I am immediately inspired. (It took a considerably long time to think of the word ‘inspired’…I hope my brain is not too out of shape.) See, I have never been able to get into the world of blogging. I have been invited, of course many times, and often I am called back to give it another go. Hopefully this time it will be more fruitful. First let me explain how my first two attempts have come and gone:

1. My initial attempt at blogging could be classified in the standard ‘journaling’ realm. The goal was to discuss my goings-on with myself, really. Though written in a style that was mildly entertaining for others, the point of this was to let myself know what I was truly thinking…writing has a way of doing this. You would think that since this task was pretty much all about me, I would be motivated to continue to keep it up to date. Well, you would be wrong; it died after only two entries.
2. The second stab at starting a blog was halted nearly immediately. While the work I completed this second time around was relatively high quality, the quantity was severely lacking. In fact, I only completed a single entry. Sad. My goal this time was to write a weekly column about some topic in the field of HCI , but I guess I didn’t have anything to comment on, other than voting machines. To tell you the truth, I really do have a lot to say about this field and the topics therein, but I guess I just was not motivated enough to continue to write.

Well, this time I’d like to start to write more. I can use the practice, and I do enjoy reading my own work (selfish as it may sound). The thing is, I don’t want to make any promises. Don’t get your hopes up, but I’ll try my best. Perhaps one day I’ll have children who will find my blog up on some dusty old internet site, with dated design and crusty old words which I thought were “cool” at the time. All I need is some motivation…

May 13, 2004

One more shot at blogspotting...

One more shot at Blogspotting...

I haven't been here in a while. Blogger is looking a little refreshed. I have to say I like and dislike the new interface. While it seems minimalistic and easy to use, I have been encountered with errors from the outset of my current endeavor. 2 of 5 stars on the "red4tr400 Usability Scale."

Anyway, let's not talk about me today, and perhaps also in the future. I'm not going to make this commentary public until I really get into the swing of things, which will hopefully be in a few weeks. My vision for this commentary is to create a forum for me to discuss topics relating to the Human-Computer Interaction, Cognitive Science, Usability, Philosophy, Robotics, and perhaps some other related topics. I will attempt to leave the mundane aspects of these sciences for the researchers to figure out, and instead will tackle the everyday applications of the topics I discuss. Basically, I've got stuff on my mind, and want a place to dump everything I'm thinking, and at the same time get a little practice at writing for fun. Let's get to it...

Electronic Voting:

If you haven't heard or read about the Diebold voting machines, start here. I was hearing a lot about this last week on San Diego's NPR Station and thoughts relating to usability came to mind. I would like to point out that none of the complaints about these voting machines have anything to do with the interface. In fact, one reporter claimed that many people reported a better voting experience than ever before. Apparently a lot of attention was paid to the interface on these machines. This is great news, especially after the bruhaha that was the 2000 presidential election. Hanging chads, butterfly ballots, and other such error prone pieces of voting technology will soon be a thing of the past.

Like it or not, electronic voting is the future. I would like to submit my votes via e-mail. It's not that I'm lazy, I'm willing to go to my local polling place, but voting online would be extremely convenient, and would perhaps incite others to get off their lazy, apathetic, or forgetful butts and take part in a big piece of what it means to be an American. Truth be told, we're a long way from e-mail voting, but computerized voting is good enough for now. I commend Diebold for their hard work in creating a usable interface for voting. It was a priority that deserved to be at the top of the list.

However, after getting the user interface right, Diebold managed to completely nullify the good qualities of the machines. It turns out that sometimes the meat of the software is more important than how it looks. While I firmly believe that good software can only be considered high quality if it has a usable interface, I do not believe the inverse is true. That is, a usable interface does not mean the software is high quality. For example, compare this Slashdot to this Slashdot . If you can't immediately tell, the former is real and the latter is fake. At first glance these are both high quality and interactive web sites, but when you delve deeper you realize that only one of these sites is the real deal. The actual quality of the material on the real Slashdot may be doubted by some, but this is not the issue I wish to discuss.

My point is that Diebold created horrible (but usable) software, and passed it off as a high quality tool. Shame on Diebold for making the User Interface Designers of the world look bad. Shame on them too for fooling voters into thinking the system was secure. Diebold should have realized that kinks in the system are not allowable when it comes to electronic voting machines. The system should have been perfected before it was released. A delayed release date beats a horrendously flawed system any day of the week, especially in the case of voting machines. Now this company is done, fini. Good riddance, Diebold. Your system tricked people into thinking it was completely usable. How do we expect people to trust our computer systems when companies with ethics like this are still in business? Diebold, your system is a traveshamockery.

Next time: GMail

March 14, 2003

La Deuxieme

Welcome back...this is number two, numero dos, la deuxieme, etcetera etcetera. Feel free to give feedback on whatever I say: jevnin@hotmail.com or Red4tr400 (screenname). Group dynamics are very interesting to me. For example, when I told people I was starting a blog there were two very distinct answers I received: "Dude, you're like the last one..." or "Dude, what the hell is a blog?" Practically no one stood in the middle. Either you know or you don't. All I have to say is that to all you experienced bloggers, I hope my blog stand at least a little chance against all the others you've seen. For you newbies, welcome to the world of blog, and feel free to join in.

Thoughts of the day:

+ Running feels good, so does fried chicken.

+ Don't pour water down somebody's back unless you are willing to pay for it...sorry Jason.

+ If you do, repercussions could be dire...if you don't, repercussions will be dire.

What I'm listening to:

+ Counting Crows: Across a Wire, Live at the Ten Spot

Random Randoms

+ Big shout out to Karen, who's off to Paris in two days. Am I:
Jealous: yes

Vicariously living: yes

Still lucky: yes

+ Second shout out to Orly, who's visiting Karen in Paris.

+ Pictures should be up on the site within the next few weeks.

+ This edition powered by Red Hat Linux.

+ I won't be cutting my hair for a while...at least on top.

+ When buying electronics do you go cheap, or drop money for name, quality and features? I swing both ways.

+ I finally figured out how to put my home videos onto the computer...then I figured out how to change them to Divx! Next step: quicktime, then you'll be able to get some free entertainment.

+ So, i'm quite the nerd, but i'm okay with that.

+ What's your favorite soda? Non-caffeine: Sprite, Caffeinated: Dr. Pepper

+ Damn Motorola...now they're charging $10 for an antenna that breaks due to their bad design! :-(

+ Countdown to my birthday: 23 days

+ I'm going to SLO for Spring break...what I need is relaxation and outdoor fun...that's the goal.

Last Words: As they say in France, "C'est tout. Maintenant je veux un sandwich." (That's all, now I want a sandwich.) Come back soon now, ya hear...I'll be updating here and there. See ya.

March 09, 2003

My First Blog

My first Blog...wow, what a step. Hopefully this will be entertaining for you, and if not, at least it will be entertaining for me. Ok, so I have to set up a little rhythm so this becomes easier each time I come back. (Simplicity is key.)

Thoughts of the day:
+ Simplicity is key.
+ It's important to get in shape by doing the things you enjoy doing. Sometimes you just need to get outdoors. Man, am I gonna be in pain in the morning.

What I'm listening to:
+ Brand New (that's the band name): Jude Law and a Semester Abroad
+ Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories (I can barely believe it too...): Rose Colored Times
+ R Kelly (I know he's disgusting, but the music's still good): I Believe I Can Fly

Random Randoms:
+ The end of the quarter sucks. The weather never fails to perk up, and there is so much to do. This is going to be a huge HuGe HUGE week. I don't want to bog you down with my worries though. It will turn out fine, it always does, just gotta spend the hours and get it done.
+ What am I doing this summer? Chock full of semi-options. There are certain things i'd like to do, then others that I WANT to do. Get the difference? Hopefully I'll set it up so I can get a whole bunch done. Sometimes the easy way out looks sooo inviting. I feel like this is the sort of thing that goes through the domino effect. Once I figure one thing out then a whole mess of stuff will get figured out with that. I'm just antsy...
+ Did you know that the six degrees of Kevin Bacon are more like the 3.42 degrees of Kevin Bacon? It's been proven mathematically...and it turns out that others are waaay more linked than he is, such as porn stars like Ron Jeremy...
+ These books are on my to-read list: Linked, Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software, Being Digital, How the Mind Works...among others
+ Books you should read: Youth In Revolt by C.D. Payne, The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, and The American Heritage College Dictionary (it's stunning...)
+ Countdown to my birthday: 28 days
+ Toad the Wet Sprocket rocks! Why didn't anybody tell me?
+ If you were buying a digital camera, which one(s) would you buy?

Last words: So that's a blog. Hope you liked it, come back soon. I'm e-mailable at: jevnin@hotmail.com, and IMable at the screenname Red4tr400. Talk to me soon...