As I walked past Washington Square Garden, Tariq invited to play a game of chess with me. It was a little stressful because I haven't played in a long time. Anyway, Tariq gave me a chess lesson on covering the king, and the four important squares of chess. He beat me anyway, but it was an informative game.

Tariq also told me that Bobby Fisher used to play chess in that park. It costs only $3.00 to play a game. If you're good, challenge Tariq. He could be contacted at tariq_211@hotmail.com. If you're not good, sign up for a lesson.

These photos are dedicated to my political activist friend Gregory Lowe. He gave me an NRDC (National Resources Defense Council) bag that promotes saving whales. Anyway, I think he would really fit here in New York. Supposedly there's a protest at Union Square every weekend.

Justin and Lainie are from L.A. (Pasadena and "The Brewery"). They're here for a visit. Here are some photos of Justin hailing a cab, and being pure goofy. They work at Jungle 8.

Jimmy Falon and Parker Posey were in Greenwich Village today shooting a Pepsi commercial. This was my first celebrity sighting. Jimmy Falon was pretty cool. He posed for me, and then did the Electric Slide.

If anyone watches this commercial, let me know what channel it's on... or when for that matter.

I was on my way to Fellissimo for the 3-D Authorship show. They were closed so instead I went to a parade on Fifth. Beautiful costumes.

Gold Bars
The Apprentice Game
Trump Business Card Holders

How much bling is too much BLING?

I just liked these photos.

We had lunch at the "Burger Joint" located in Le Parker Meridian on 56th Street, and walked to this gallery on 57th. Pretty Cool.

I was riding the subway and saw 4 kids, probably ages ranging from 11-17. One of the kids had a poster carrier, and within 5 minutes, he took the sports ad from one of the walls. He then contemplated to take the NYU ad, but after careful deliberation, he said "Nah, it's not worth it, since it would mean that he would have to break the Plexiglas. Then he wanted the whole line of the sports. He wanted this collection, but he seemed to scared to steal those because now the car was crowded. To seem a little "bad ass" he starts picking on his brother, saying how he had a chance to go out with a college girl. It's his younger brother because they were wearing the same exact polo hooded jerseys, that perhaps they received for Christmas. When they got off on 4th Avenue, I took a photo of them, and that dude flipped me off. He probably thought I was a narc or something.

Nick and I went to the Bernstein and Gershwin concert at Town Hall, and at the end of the concert, the conductor proposed to his fiance.

This is a social game created by Summer Bedhard at ITP at NYU and her group for game design. I couldn't resist taking a photo. It looks fun and funny. Btw, Steve Jackson smells fresh, like pecans, denoted by his name "Pecan Jackson."

This is not a Halloween costume...

He is the "moustache man" that works at the Java Lava Cafe. If you're tired of Starbucks, mosey to Waverly and Mercer Streets (293 Mercer), which is behind the Tisch building. Cheap coffee with NYU discounts.

Important Update for OJ lovers:

A small carton of Tropicana orange juice costs $2.00 at All About Food, but it costs only $1.25...go figure

He's got other stories:
The $10 million Spit, a true story
Guppy ice-cubes
and more...

My ex-co-worker, Riadh, started this trend of bringing us Harlequin and various romance novels. We heard that Ziggy, Cliff's wife likes to read them, so Cliff designed this cover with their faces on it.

p.s.

Cliff and Ziggy are married.

This is Ivanka Trump at the LAX airport Tuesday, January 16, 2007, waiting in the security line at approximatelt 7:30 am. I am happy to report that she didn't receive any preferential treatment. She's really tall, and took off her 3-inch stilettos, and gracefully tippy-toed through. Very stylish, wearing a camel coat, and violet alligator bag. She noticed us noticing her, and I even joked, "You're FIRED!" A former graduate at Wharton, she helps her dad host The Apprentice in Los Angeles this season. So far, I've watched two episodes, and the tasks were pretty silly. I like that the winning project manager can sit in the board room for the elimination. I also like what Ivanka has to offer to the show. Hopefully, the tasks get more challenging, but so far it makes Los Angeles look like the Diva Drama Queen of Soap Operas.

Donald's probably thankful that Ivanka didn't turn out like Paris Hilton.

The other celebrity I saw when I moved to New York about a year and a half ago was James Cameron, the director of the Titanic.

I just found this site, Knover. A site that practices the "Six Degrees" theory. It basically maps and keeps a database of famous people and their affiliations. I believe this site scapes the Internet for articles with the specific names, and compiles it in a database, so you can cross-reference people with people, affiliation with affiliation, or people with affiliation. I just searched for Oprah, and her profile alone, came up with 15 pages of people, and has 973 web associations. Warren Buffet has 63 web associations, Bill Gates has 462 web associations, George Soros has just 213. Wait! I found someone who beat Oprah with 1,798 web associations, Bill Clinton. I'm not counting George Bush (2,149 web associations) because it seems like most of it is related to what he's doing with the war, i.e. his connection with Adolf Hitler? I also like how they have separate categories like business, music, fashion, news and politics.

The pitfalls, don't type someone not famous, or it will crash, and it tracks just the mainstream/popular "notables." Although, a profile came up for John Zorn. A search for Clay Shirky came up with a profile as well, but I couldn't find Red Burns.

How cool is this site? I was just complaining about how printed birthday cards and e-cards are so cheesy. Cliff Hahn, my cool friend (I swear he should start a magazine), recommended this site. This is for the geeks at heart.

GeoGreeting will allow you to send a personal message/e-card, but what is unique about this site is that the font are photos from satellite images of the top of buildings.

Here are some examples:

Production process and first peek of his new Pixel Mirror.

Here's a preview of the ultraORB by James N. Sears and his father Ron Sears. It's a dual-axis rotating display creates color visualizations of models in 3D space, using persistence of vision.

A rotating 320 tri-color LEDs about two axes simultaneously under the control of sixteen microcontrollers, creates a fully volumetric display that can display arbitrary models within the three dimensional volume of an 11" sphere.

It will be at the ITP Spring Show, this Tuesday and Wednesday night at 721 Broadway.

Nick and I just met the sweetest, most down-to-Earth designers and architect. They just won a Webbie for their work Yellowstonepark.com site. We also saw Lonely Girl at the party.

[Nick, me, Joel, Jennifer, and Paul]

Facebook Meetup was organized by Amit Gupta, who wrote the Amazin' Wishlist application, and is founder of the startup Photojojo. Also a special guest showed up at the first NY meetup.

Recognize this face?

Mark Zuckerberg showed up in New York because of his sister's graduation.

I saw a couple of ITPers there. A holler out to Jadie and Cat! Two out of 4 females including myself. More about what I thought at this link: http://nyu.facebook.com/profile.php?id=835967.

I'm very proud of our Kermit Soufflé.

Angelos told me that a lot of graffiti artists use Priority Mail labels as free stickers to promote their craft. Maybe that's why I have to wait in line at the post office twice.

Photo taken close to Plan B bar in East Village.

Of all Michael Moore's movies I've watched, this one was the most effective. I must have cried three or four times during this movie. I'm not going to ruin the movie, but I was amazed at how successful "universal health care systems" worked in other countries. I was also appalled by the cost of drugs here compared to everywhere else (London, approximately $10.00, and $0.05 for an inhaler in Cuba compared to a whopping $126.00). Something has to change. I'm also a believer that drug ads should not be broadcasted on television ("Ask your doctor if you have..."). Hopefully, we have a better president who will care about this issue in 2008. The candidate who focuses on healthcare will definitely have my vote.

Of course critics of Michael Moore and universal health care programs will say things like "these programs will cost more," but the fact of the matter is that, in the long run, we pay more. We have to pay for our education ($60,00 - $100,000), and add to that health insurance ($2,500 - $3,000), and don't forget if you own a car (another $3,000). Insurance is like an investment. You have to be insured because if you don't, they jack the rates up. I just read something in BusinessWeek about early retirement advice, and they recommend what insurances to get at what life stage your're in (20's, 30's, 40's, etc.). There's even a stint about insurance for insurance (just in case you live longer and your nest egg runs out). How ridiculous is that?

I just read an article in the New York TImes about Freelancers Union. They offer affordable insurance to freelance workers.

Here are some interesting links.

Link to how much these presidential candidates are receiving from the health care industry.

Link to a Blue Cross PR Rep's analysis of Sicko and his talking points... Michael Moore actually challenges the CEO of Blue Cross to a debate.

CNN Gets Blitzed by Michael Moore

CNN's report is so slanted that Michael Moore addresses point-by-point all of Dr. Sanjay Gupta's claims (doctor for CNN).

Anyway, the movie is good, and it reminds me of what Linda Stone lectured about in Red's class. We have the power, as consumers.

http://losangeleschronicle.blogspot.com

I started reading my sister's blog, and I really love it. She's so deftly honest. Anyway, good stock tips (except Altria which was formerly "Philip Morris," but they are known to higher dividends, and Ebay) and random minutia that "microwave popcorn" linked to lung cancer. I first heard about this 15 months ago from Nick's parents, but didn't know the chemical that caused it (diacetyl). I can't believe that those popcorn manufacturers (Orville Redenbacher's and Act II brands) are going to remove that chemical by the end of this year. HOW ABOUT RECALL NOW?!? I really think they should get fined for waiting that long.

Anyway, she's from Los Angeles, so some of the advice might be helpful to those that live there.

Only in New York will sell every seat to the movie Helvetica. There was an ITP "designers" reunion at 8:20 pm last night. The movie was great in exhibiting pro-Helvetica and anti-Helvetica sentiments. Liked how the movie presented the historical and cultural contexts of helvetica and graphic design in general. Super designers from the older and current generations gave their two cents. In the end, the director, Gary Hustwit and type designer Tobias Frere-Jones made a special appearance. The director was down-to-earth and honest. He admitted that he was approached to direct a movie on the font Times New Roman. I really liked the movie, and would probably watch it again to see David Carson, who will make a special appearance today. I was a big fan of his work in Ray Gun magazine.

If you go, do pick up an "I hate Helvetica" or "I love Helvetica" pin.

Gary Hustwit and type designer Tobias Frere-Jones
Photo Credit: Lia Bulaong

Jane and Tim in this photo, among other ITPers that went, Pollie, Dmitri, Dan, Ahn (Mang), and Lia. It was really great to see them.

Even though the Idea 2007 conference was sponsored by The Information Architecture Institute, the speakers were really diverse, ranging from artists/designers to developers/engineers, and public agencies, such as hospitals and New York City's non-emergency number, 311. A lot of the speakers were ITP alums or teaching at ITP. I'm working on a wiki with my extensive notes, and will publish the link here (TK TK TK). Missed some really good presentations, but for the entire list, please visit http://ideaconference.org/program.html.

Here were some of the speakers:

Rachel Abrams (who currently teaches a mapping class at ITP) - I just caught the end of her presentation on taxis.

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Frank Lantz, area/code (also teaches at ITP)

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Brad Paley, Information Esthetics

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Hasan Elahi, artist (he was a guest speaker at one of ITP's Friday seminars)
He's working on a pretty cool project titled Tracking Transcience (will have more of the backstory in my notes.

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Chenda Frutcher, The City of New York's 311 line, (alum of ITP)
Couldn't take photos of her presentation, sorry (will have a section of her presentation in my notes). I enjoyed her presentation because she works and designs around real-world problems.

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Fernanda Viegas & Martin Wattenberg, Many Eyes, open source data visualization site

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David Rose, Ambient Devices, founder of the Ambient Orb

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Mike Kuniavsky, Founder of ThingM and Co-founder of Adaptive Path
RFID Wine Rack

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Jake Barton, Local Projects (teaches thesis at ITP)

In East Village, close to the West 4th St. stop, I discovered where Willa Cather and Richard Wright wrote their books. The sign reads:

Willa Cather, author of My Antonia, wrote her first novel, Alexander's Bridge, here in 1912. Richard Wright, author of Native Son, wrote his autobiography, Black Boy here in 1945.

Last year, a performer was turning 40 years old that day was involved in a crazy Evel Kenievel-like stunt. He rode his skateboard and gained momentum to jump over 25 trash barrels (mid-air), and landed on his skateboard. I wish I had my camera back then. Hopefully, I can catch a repeat performance this year.

In the meantime, there were a set of brothers (a guy and his two twin brothers) are performing some fun stunts and comedy routine in Washington Square. They had the most successful act in collecting money, they had almost everyone involved and engaged. They would reward people who offered bigger donations and created a competitive atmosphere rewarding the donors by giving props to their countries (aimed at tourists). Well this year, this guy ran over and jumped over five people and aimed through his brother's arms.

with interesting forms. These images are for Ron Sears, who is an artist in Jerseyville Illinois, and works with metal. The first sculpture reminds me of David Smith's works.

PETA does a spoof on the Olsen twins. On the PETA site, they are the Trollsen twins, Hairy-Kate and Trashley, yikes! You can dress them in fur outfits, persuade someone not to wear fur (by sending them a prewritten email), watch a reappropriated video of Full House on the Tanner Family Crisis, buy t-shirts, and download free banners. Interesting that they are targeting the youth market. I wonder what happens if they do stop wearing fur, who will they go after next? Now all they need is a Facebook app.

I was pretty impressed with how progressive ABC network was with their broadcast of the New Hampshire Debates. In an effort to get the youth involved, they integrated Facebook into their program. At first, I thought it was because Microsoft owned NBC that they were involved with Facebook, but I don't think they own ABC. Nevertheless, I watched both parties address issues. My only criticism was that the moderators should have asked the same questions to all candidates of both parties, even though their intention was to bring up questions that posed weaknesses to each of the parties. Anyway, it was interesting to watch the Facebook polls on television, a convergence with traditional media with the web.

For some reason, I thought Ron Paul presented the strongest arguments, and I thought Mitt Romney appeared superficial. I agreed with Bill Richardson's strong stance on Pakistan, and second Hillary Clinton's views on foreign policy. In any case, my vote will probably go to the candidate who best addresses the national health care issue, and issues that affect aging Baby Boomers. That's because my mom is paying ~$800.00 per month for insurance, which seems pretty excessive.

I attended this conference because of Bill Buxton and Sigi Moeslinger, and was amazed with their presentations. I was also impressed with Malcolm McCullough, who teaches at the University of Michigan, and spoke of his research with culture and ubiquitous computing.

I also enjoyed a presentation on "fieldwork and sketching" from a Ph.D. candidate, who interned at Intel, Matt Jones who founded Dopplr, Regine DeBatty from "We Make Money Not Art," Alan Cooper ("An Insurgency of Quality") as well as another one of his rep who talked about his processes in design, and Dan Brown, who lectured on Concept Models. I hope to put my notes, but it might take a long time to transcribe. In the meantime, please check out my flickr photos.

This was a phenomenal exhibition. I'm going to it a third time, and even bought the catalog, which is beautifully designed by Irma Boom (if you like typography, check out the cover and title page).

Lots of ITP alumni and adjunct faculty, and a lot of current information visualization designers like Brad Paley, Sep Kamvar, Jonathan Harris and Jason Wishnow.

ITPers:
Lisa Strausfeld and James N. Sears, NY Times cover
Dimitri Tyler, Hypothetical Drawings
Dan Phiffer and Mushon Zer-Aviv's pcomp project: Atlas Gloves
Christian Schmidt (ITP adjunct faculty) and Lisa Strausfeld's OLPC's operating system, "Sugar"

Probably more ITPers' works that are not mentioned here.

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Artists/Designers (left to right): Sep Kamvar, Jonathan Harris and James N. Sears

If you are interested in social computing, collective action by groups, sociology of groups, and group dynamic, then this is the book for you. Download his podcast from BusinessWeek.com.

This book is clearly written, succinct, and relevant and current of the technologies we use today. Each chapter is composed of a story to demonstrate the psychological theories, but the difference, these aren't controlled experiments from the 60's (residue from my undergrad studies in psychology). Reading the first chapter reminds me of Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point, basically comprehendable to lay people like me.

Anyway, I'm a little biased because I had Clay Shirky as a professor twice.

Paul Graham boiled it down to an analogy with food and explanation of the economies of scale:

An obstacle downstream propagates upstream. If you're not allowed to implement new ideas, you stop having them. And vice versa: when you can do whatever you want, you have more ideas about what to do. So working for yourself makes your brain more powerful in the same way a low-restriction exhaust system makes an engine more powerful.

Mediocre hires hurt you twice: they get less done, but they also make you big, because you need more of them to solve a given problem.

In other words, work at a smaller company or your own start up. To read the whole blog post, click here.

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His post about "How To Do Philosophy" is funny, as it reminds me of some people who fit the stereotype.

Yesterday, a friend of mine invited me to join a pool for March Madness. I've never heard of March Madness, let alone ever watched a basketball game, so I decided to check this event out.

To begin with, CBS's Bracket Manager allows you to feel confident in making your decisions. When you mouse over each school, there is a call-out box that gives you odds and a little blurb-summary about the team (e.g. all team members are freshmen or the team has a new coach). And you just pick for each region, until you get down to 4, then 2, then 1.

So when I logged in to my fb account, CBS already asked if I wanted to add their app. The primary profile page (i.e. first image below) lists the top 5 favorite and despised teams. Fortunately, you can see how many fans, but the flip-side is that 3 out of the 6 schools are on both lists: favorite and despised. They are named by the team and not school, but the brackets are by state, not team, so you do have to click on the link, which takes you to the school/team's page. Each team/school has their own page (i.e. second image below), which lists all team members, stats, scoreboard, schedule, trash talk, etc. Unfortunately I wasn't able to brag about my brackets because of technological difficulties (maybe a broken link between CBS brackets with fb account?)

This page updates dynamically to tell you which schools played, which schools won, and even a photo of some plays.

I found out that Barack Obama picked North Carolina to win the NCAA championship on this page.

If you're involved in a pool, you can see dynamic updates as to who is in the lead, the estimated best score, etc.

How has this changed my behavior? Well, I spent about a half an hour trying to transfer my brackets from my account in CBS to my fb account. Then I was simultaneously watching two or three games at a time, and refreshing my brackets and standings page. I've been looking up how I could HAVE increased my odds (Vegas bets--this is too late, of course because these brackets closed at noon Thursday).

And LAST, more importantly, I am engaged. This photo is just...

is where to get reasonably priced frames in New York...

I was hesitant to try this place that I found on Citysearch, but after reading 15 positive 5-star reviews, I decided to take a chance and try it.

When I first met Mr. Shah, he had a lot of questions about the layout, but I left it in his creative hands. He did a fantastic job, and even when I had a quiver of doubt, he still accommodated my worries by emailing me photos of the comp. We were very satisfied with his works.

269 West 36th Street
New York, NY 10018
Phone: (212) 869-7040

I just recently watched Spamalot. I think I probably watched a couple of Monty Python movies in my life, and wasn't privvy to the storyline. Anyway, this was okay. Clay Aiken plays Sir Robin, and there were some lines relevant to American Idol and ex-governor Spitzer to make it more current. The set design wasn't as sophisticated as some of the other musicals and Broadway shows I've watched, and the atmosphere was like watching a high-school play because the humor appealed to a grand group of high schoolers (sitting next to us) that were hee-hawing at every boob and camel-toe joke.

But in the end, my overall opinion was that I like it, probably because of the "Find Your Grail" medley, some snarky bits, and it's originality. I would definitely watch this before seeing Wicked, and/or KA. I watched this after, so my expectations were higher.

merits her own post.

I'm not sure who the artist is of this painting, but it's probably one of my favorite illustrations of her. Found in Comicon at Javitz this year.

She was my favorite character while growing up. I think every girl wanted to be her. They marketed Wonder Woman underoos when I was in grade school, which was the tank and bikini underwear that made you feel like a super hero, or Diana Prince. Anyway, a movie is in production, and slated to be released in 2009, but I wonder, who will play Wonder Woman? Lynda Carter played her in the 70's. Heard through the grapevine that either Catherine Zeta-Jones or Angelina Jolie would play her. I don't think Angelina Jolie should play her, since she's already Lara Croft in Tomb Raider. And Catherine Zeta-Jones should've played Elektra instead of Jennifer Garner. Anyway, we're do for a heroine blockbuster movie soon! Crossing my fingers.

There were some people who dressed like their favorite characters. I guess everyone wants to be a super hero/heroine. Anime costumes were more popular. Some of these I know, but some of these I don't know.

A couple of Japanese companies were promoting Victorian fashion.

Interesting exhibitors at Comicon...

Record/audition your scream at the Spiderman booth.

Get an autograph by your favorite comic illustrator at DC Comics (though I saw a guy bring in a case of comic books to sign, so the line may take awhile).

Try out My Beating Heart at Android8, which is designed by ITP alum Yury Gitman. It is strangely meditative. I ended up buying one to test. Reminds me of MIT robotic seals. Android8 has other cool toys and characters that are new.

So many people visiting this booth selling LED-lit samurai swords and ninja stars.

Play video games.

Win prizes (there was a really long line for this).

Find a job at TokyoPop. They were interviewing and reviewing portfolios of illustrators and writers.

Watch this guy finish this illustration.

For jazz lovers, check out Birdland this month. Last night, Saxophone Summit [Ravi Coltrane/Dave Liebman/Joe Lavano/all sax players, Cecil McBee/bass, Phil Markowitz/piano, and Billy Hart/drums] played some songs from their new album Seraphic Light and some work from the late John Coltrane. As a novice to jazz music, I recommend seeing live performances, especially with more of the experimental genre.

Tickets are $40 for orchestra seats and there is a $10 minimum purchase for drinks/dinner. I was impressed with the food too (had the scallops plate and stuffed pepper with mushroom risotto).

I was fortunate enough to find this indie theater through NYU Ticket Central. I watched Reasons To Be Pretty by Neil LaBute. I've been following his works via film and theater for approximately one decade now (In The Company of Men and Your Friends and Neighbors, The Shape of Things). Most of his works are a little dark, but his new play that just came out actually has a sliver of a silver lining, which is a "coming of age" tale. Love his note in the program, which he expresses that he wishes he was a "braver person," and continues to sympathize and admire the protagonist, Greg. I was impressed with the cast (i.e. Piper Perabo, Thomas Sadoski, Alison Pill, Pablo Schreiber). Subscription prices are reasonable, click here for more information.

MCC Theater at
The Lucille Lortel Theatre
121 Christopher St
New York, NY 10014

Schedule:

Fifty Words
By Michael Weller
Sept 10-Oct 25, 2008

The Break of Noon
by Neil LaBute
Jan 14-Feb 28, 2009

Coraline
Based on the Novel by Neil Gaiman
May 6-June 20, 2009

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Other recommended theater picks from my friends include: Xanadu (within 2 weeks) and 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock).

So after a 2 years of perusing, I've finally become a Yelper. I used to use Citysearch frequently before, but one time I reviewed a restaurant, and it was rejected (and it was a good review too). I think I was trying to upload photo several times, then finally I just gave up.

In a recent trip to Miami, I was looking for a restaurant that served good ceviche, so I checked on Yelp, and found The River Oyster Bar, which met and exceeded my expectations. Instead of blogging about food, I just review them on Yelp. Also, I've been looking for recommendations on hair stylists and acupuncture, and found some very helpful tips (e.g. they don't charge tax if you pay cash, and so forth).

Just recently, a fellow Yelper invited me to an event to meet other New York Yelpers in Red Hook.

I thought this ad was funny. It's on the 4/5 train. I did do a double-take to read this ad. Anyway it's sponsored by Absolut, which is surprising because usually there ads are very elegant and sleek (e.g. artist reappropriates the Absolut Vodka bottle).

This is pretty risky, and you wouldn't know who sponsored it unless you were reading it up close (i.e. versus a crowded subway).

I'm not sure if I want to be Kanye.

I took a photo of this aspiring director. Could that be a Super 8 or 16 mm? What was he shooting? Legs? Shoes? Walking? Documentary? Live-Action?

Finally... I get to see Radiohead at All Points West, which is a music festival on the East Coast, comparable to Coachella in California. I had an opportunity to go to a Radiohead concert at the Hollywood Bowl 5 years ago (box/front row), but because I had AT&T (and the service was spotty) that I never received the calls (4x) from my friend (it was a last minute thing). Hence, I don't have an iPhone or use AT&T.

Anyway, this should be good because this May at Coachella, Prince reappropriated Radiohead's song "Creep," and some listeners took video of him, and uploaded it on YouTube. And then Prince told them to take the video down. Then Radiohead got involved, and said it was there song, and to leave it up. Well they're playing tonight and tomorrow night. Also Ben Harper is playing there as well.

TED.com just released Nick Sear's 2007 presentation on the Orb. Since it's premiere, he has been working on version 2, which is probably 200% more complex than the first one. There are more LED lights, 80-pin chips, and SD cards. Every component is surface-mounted, and takes place on both sides of the circuit board.

This is the Eagle/CAD drawing of the circuit board:

This is the printed circuit board with the electronics soldered on:

This is when it's illuminated:

It is heading to Singapore for Siggraph 2008. For more information on Nick Sears, visit Art Magnitude site.

Just went to this talk about "interviews" related to research process, which I thought was pretty valuable, and was glad I didn't miss. There were 4 speakers:

Elisabeth M. De Morentin, Illinois Institute of Technology, Institute of Design
She presented some research on the Apple Store Experience, particularly about iPod nano.

Clive Thompson, Contributing Writer for New York Times Magazine and columnist for Wired magazine
He spoke about interviewing the Netflix competition to improve the accuracy of movie recommendation, and the discovery through interview (that six indie movies were causing the algorithmic problem, particularly Napoleon Dynamite).

Jason Severs, Principal Designer, frog design
He presented ethnographic research for a couple of products (e.g. remote control, and Neutrogena Exfoliator device).

Gary Hustwit, Director of Helvetica and currently Objectified (coming out this Spring)
He spoke about replacing the word "interview" with "conversation," which helped people to be more natural (versus over-rehearsed), and the importance of facial cues.

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I believe Adam Greenfield, author of Everyware, Design Director of Nokia, Former Faculty at ITP and Steven Heller (Author and Art Director) will be speaking at the next Dot Dot Dot event.

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I saw a lot of ITP Alumni, including a couple of ITP Faculty (Kate Hartman, Rob Faludi, and Robert Fabricant, also Creative Director at frog)

I wasn't able to attend the first one, but here were the speakers:
Tom Bodkin, design director, New York Times

Jake Barton, founder and principal, Local Projects

Andrew Sloat, graphic designer and videomaker

Christopher Fahey, founding partner, Behavior; forthcoming faculty, MFA Interaction Design

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Check out StartHere, one of the sponsors... They raffled out StartHere notebooks--if you had 3 dots (Dot Dot Dot) on the back of your raffle ticket, you would have won one of these prizes.

I can't wait to see David Fincher tonight at the Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of at Jazz at Lincoln Center (I've been wanting to check out this venue for awhile), hosted by Film Society of Lincoln Center. He's going to speak about his new movie, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I've already read up on the production which affected his decision of writing a second screenplay, and making of the movie from articles in the New York Times [You can find the links through Delicious I'm sure]. More about this event, here.

Btw, that photo above was one of my favorite scenes in the movie.

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They also showed Zodiac, which I'm going to have to rent via Netfix. That movie went under my radar. Just from the thumbnail on this page, it looks like some 70's movies like Network.

I <3 FDNY, NYPD, Coast Guards, Paramedics, et. al.

Need I say more? As a NYC-transplant, I love watching everyone pulling together collaboratively to remedy the situation. Photo above was taken by James Nicholas Sears at Battery Park, NYC. And yes, that's the tail.

At first I thought the story about birds sounded ludicrous, but when we went out there, we saw a flock of them flying around the area.

If you want to see more photos, check out my Flickr photos, we took the D700 out for a run with a Nikon 70-300m, 5.6 lens. I'm satisfied the D700 is great with low light. All photos taken by James Nicholas Sears...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thinkinggirl/sets/72157612620227474/

Geotags:

Google Maps
http://tinyurl.com/usaircrashphotolocation

Google Earth
http://jamesnsears.com/temp/photo_location.kmz

On my way to the Mayflower, I just saw Joe Biden on his way to the Inaugural Concert. The block before, I saw Bill Clinton, but didn't have time to pull out my camera... Oh well.

To see a bigger version of these photos, visit my Flickr account.

Awesome Robert Frank Exhibition at the Smithsonian. It is pretty comprehensive with prints from The Americans and Black, White And Things. Not only do they exhibit prints, but his test prints, contact sheets, application for the Guggenheim Fellowship, Jack Kerouac's drafts and letters to Walker Evans. This is probably the best photography exhibition I've been to, along with another one, a few years back at LACMA on some experimental Japanese photographs.

This is one of my favorite photographs of all time. Mr. Frank took this in New Orleans in 1955. After coming out of jail, he was shooting a parade, and then quickly captured this photo. There are racial and gender tones [Caucasian male, Caucasian female, Caucasian boy, etc.]. Obviously, this photo was taken during segregation. A couple of weeks after Frank took this photo, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat. You should be familiar with Robert Frank's works if you're a photographer.

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It ends in April. Also, they have a smaller Ansel Adams exhibition close by, which ends in March. I am definitely coming back. Last, I saw ads 2-for-1 tickets for an exhibition for Richard Avedon's works (also in DC as well).

So my girlfriend, Min Batstone and her husband, Ian, fought their way through the crowds to take these photos. She said she was close to Ann Curry as well, one of my favorite journalists.

All photos were taken by Min Batstone, and can be viewed on Flickr profile. Please contact her if you would like to use them.

He waves to her directly in this photo.

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I <3 Ann Curry. This photo is also taken by Min.

I didn't get to visit this, but plan to on my next trip to DC. This LED installation was designed by Leo Villareal, an ITP Alumni, and is located at the National Gallery of Arts. I'm not sure if it's interactive, but anyway, it's a sight.

Please credit Min Batstone.

I found out so many and learned how to do so many things on Flickr. It is truly one of the most successful social software. So far, one of my photos have been published in foreign newsletters, domestic music videos, Art Forum magazine (Print edition) and BBC (digital edition). I learned how to take a screenshot of my iPhone app, and meet great photographers and artists, who tell me about new interesting exhibitions or advise me on camera purchases.

Please credit Lia Bulaong.

Just recently, on Lia Bulaong's page, I found the above photo with a lot of people commenting about this newspaper/newsletter on select internet writings from techno-artists-designers, such as "Michael Beirut, Matt Jones, Michal Migurski and the Mars Phoenix probe" (Lia Bulaong). Lia also included a link where you can order this paper, which is pretty cool. It's published by Ben Terrett and Russell Davies of Really Interesting Group. I just ordered one. You can read more about their project here.

Lia is definitely a cool hunter.

I went in with the mind set of not taking notes for all four speakers, which is why I just brought my iPhone and no tablet.

But at the end of Rachel Abram's talk, and in the middle of Soo-in Yang's talk, I decided to not be lazy, and start taking notes. I've seen Rachel speak at an IDEA event in 2007 and an AIGA/Apple event last year [a link to my notes last year]. She spoke about how her many diciplines have added to her interaction design, and showed some of her research of the taxi system. Soo-in Yang is an architect who created this physical interactive sculpture that reacts to information about air quality via mobile phones. It was a public art piece in South Korea (look at photos below). He also collaborated with Rob Faludi and Terence Arjo on another project.

Last, was this music composer, Phil Kline, who started Unsilent Night, an event that happens on Christmas Eve, and started with a couple of people in NYC, but has grown to thousands in many other cities. You can see his video on YouTube.

A slide from Adam Greenfield's Presentation

Adam Greenfield, who taught at ITP, and wrote the book titled Everyware also spoke at Dot Dot Dot, and now head of design direction at Nokia. He researches many ubiquitous computing systems. I can't cover everything he spoke about, but if you want to see some of his presentation slides, visit my Flickr set. Here are some of the highlights that you can look up or read about in his new book The City Is Here For You To Use:

UNStudio with Arup Engineering: Galleria West, Apgujeongdong in S. Korea

u-Cheonggyecheong: Instead of cleaning the stream, they wrapped it in media.

Tom Armitage, Making Bridges Talk: What if the London Bridge could Twitter?

u-City New Songdo: totally networked, and can track everything down to tagging soda bottles with RFID tags that can automatically credit your account even if you throw it in trash. Every action is recorded and mediated. This project is still a work-in-progress.

Massive simultaneity: The 1K Project

MITsenseable city lab/New York Talk Exchange (NYTE)

Mosaic of Singapore mall: A photo that shows a lady moving through a mall physically, but this mosaic also shows a layer of secondary information--who is on the other end of her mobile phone. We should think about cyberspace (Being on phone is like being in cyberspace) when we think about designing the physical space.

Stamen Design: Oakland Crimespotting
Think about constraints in analysis (e.g. Taxonomy of police department is already a constraint (e.g. categorizing rape).

iPhone/Flickr: Geotagging/Search urbanism, browse urbanism, make urban API. If we check the weather before we go out, we are conditioned to that networked information, hence Adam calls this a "network overlay." Contemplate how this "overlay" reflects every decision we make (i.e. real-time info).

I've also added Adam Greenfield's blog to my RSS Feeds and Google Reader.

I'm in Dublin, Ireland to document some work at the Lightwave Exhibition in the Science Gallery at Trinity College. This exhibition is trying to bridge science and art. Already, there a couple of ITPers showing their works: James N. Sears, Nurit Bar-Shai, and Lori Napolean.

Nick is showing his second design of The Orb, which now plays videos and Processing apps, and still images. Right now, Jonathan Cousin's data visualization is currently on The Orb.

Nurit Bar-Shai collaborated with other artists and MIT to show live video feeds of cellular interactions and the Northern Lights, of course separately.

Lori Napoleon created an interactive sculpture called "Scintillator." The sculpture is composed of tetrahedral shapes, and changes color when you touch it.

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Later, I will try to post photos on Flickr. Feel free to ping me if I forget.

I just went to a laser performance by Dmitry Gelfand and Evelina Domnitch. This was pretty amazing, but unfortunately I couldn't take photos. Here's a link to a video...

They have three colored high-powered lasers in red, green and blue, which is refracted and projected over a circular flat tray with soapy solution. When they manipulate the solution, beautiful textures are projected. There was a grainy texture, so I had to ask how they achieved that. They told me that they just densely packed the bubbles together, playing with the surface tension and properties, such as hydrophilic/hydrophobic surfaces of the bubble. What is seen is a visual and elegant light show, sometimes the light bubble film looked like peacock feathers. If you have an opportunity to see this show live, I highly recommend it.

The artists (from left to right) Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand.

I am so lucky that I got tickets for this event. I have probably seen Lawrence Lessig (founder of Creative Commons) talk twice before. Steven Johnson spoke in Red Burn's class at ITP in 2005, and co-founded the community site [www.outside.in]. Also, he is coming out with a new book titled The Invention of Air. Just from the title, I can see how it's relevant to Lessig and Fairey. Here is the video of him talking about his new book. I've also been a big fan of Shepard Fairey's works since Obey. All three will be at this event, hosted by NYPL, and co-sponsored by Wired magazine.

There's been a lot of controversy surrounding Shepard Fairey (known for the popular Hope posters depicting Barack Obama and Obey). Apparently Fairey is being sued by AP Reuters for referencing a photo he used for the Hope poster. Read the article from Wired magazine.

Photo Credit: Boing Boing

Milton Glaser writes his point of view on this matter in Boing Boing. Milton Glaser designed the Bob Dylan album cover, and was popular for his "I ♥ NY" identity.

What I think is interesting is all these remixes of Fairey's works. You can see people using Fairey's style and aesthetic for the Hope poster on their Facebook profile, but instead of Obama, it's them. Here is an article from Wired magazine of fans of the movie Dark Knight using Fairey's style on a photo Heath Ledger's Joker.

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If you like Shepard Fairey's works from Obey. You may like Robbie Canal as well. He did a lot of posters of political figures.

Having worked in the publishing industry for a couple of years, I can't say enough how "On Point" Clay is about businesses having to think through new business models to survive. He mentions useful suggestions/examples and provides solutions to problems that I saw first-hand in these environments (e.g. The Guardian does it right, Fail-Forward-Fast model). Adaptation/Iteration/Group Action seem to be some relevant points. It's great that they covered filtering as well because I'm starting to get more of my news and more relevant links through Twitter.

The original link here [http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/02/group-action-interview-clay-shirky.html]

Another good article on Micropayments/Journalism/Freakonomics here [http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/blnk/]

Open event and I think it is free. The Korean-American Scientists Association is sponsoring. Found this on the ITP list.

Date: April 4, 2009
Time: 3:00pm - 5:00pm
Location: Davis Auditorium
4th Flr. Schapiro Center (CEPSR), Columbia University

till parsing through all these videos, but if you want to watch more videos, visit IgniteNYC on YouTube, click here:

Matthew Burton's Presentation "Hacking with Spooks: How to Code For the CIA From Your Basement"

Perry Chen's site Kickstarter (pretty awesome site)

Luke Dubois' "A More Perfect Union"

Baratunde Thurston's "...I Learned From Being @the_swine_flu"

Andy Maskin's "Bring On The Dancing Horses"

Rachel Sklar's "How I Learned to Love Giving Away My Money Online"

Kevin Slavin's "Dollhouse Earth"

After seeing my friend and colleague Matt Chmiel at the ITP 30th Anniversary, I couldn't get this song out of my head. Then I found the lyrics on this site Lyrics on Demand. Who knows? I might just by the ringtone there ;)

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Sclemeel (Chmiel), schlemazel, hasenfeffer incorporated. We're gonna do it!

Give us any chance, we'll take it.
Give us any rule, we'll break it.
We're gonna make our dreams come true.
Doin' it our way.

Nothin's gonna turn us back now,
Straight ahead and on the track now.
We're gonna make our dreams come true,
Doin' it our way.

There is nothing we won't try,
Never heard the word impossible.
This time there's no stopping us.
We're gonna do it.

On your mark, get set, and go now,
Got a dream and we just know now,
We're gonna make our dream come true.
And we'll do it our way, yes our way.
Make all our dreams come true,
And do it our way, yes our way,
Make all our dreams come true
For me and you.

So quite awhile back when I went to Wired Nextfest, I saw a robotic arm with 33 pneumatic pumps. I thought it was amazing because it could pick an object as fragile as an egg, but I couldn't visualize how this could be translated to helping amputees.

But recently on a 60 Minutes program, DARPA is funding this amazing project. You can control the arm connected to sensors with your foot. In this clip, you can see a user pick up a bottle of soda, open it, and drink from it. Also in the last portion of the clip, this company experiments with brain waves by connecting sensors to the limb (not sure, but could be related to phantom limbs). Anyway, I was blown away by this technology. If you have any insight, and ping me links to other scientific research (address is posted in the footer--Thx).

Watch CBS News Videos Online

You can read more about this story, here.

Just watched CNN Heroes show that awarded people making a difference. The premise is there were ~9k applicants, but they awarded 10 people $25k, and allowed people to vote for 1 out of the 10 to receive an additional $100k. I thought the award (etched wooden plaque) was interestingly designed (not the black case for the "Hero of the Year" -- looked like a coffin). In any case, I wished CNN awarded more than $25k to all recipients, but they may recieve more money from just the high visibility of this show. Was wondering where Bono was.

These were the people who made a difference (in the order of CNN's presentation of awards):

Doc Hendley
Bringing clean water to devoloping countries.
http://www.winetowater.org/

Roy Foster
Aids homeless veterans a second chance (was formerly homeless and veteran himself).
http://www.standown.org/

Efren Peñaflorida
Pushcart classes so kids can be interested in education rather than gangs.
http://dynamicteencompany.org/

Jordan Thomas
Provides proesthetics to amputees 18 and under (mostly shyed away from Health insurance companies).
http://www.jordanthomasfoundation.org/

Betty Makoni
Women's Rights Advocate (Counciling Women who have been raped--Probably the most disturbing story is health rumor that men can cure HIV by raping virgins).
http://girlchildnetworkworldwide.org/

Derrick Tabb
Started a music ed afterschool program (teach and form bands) in New Orleans for poverished. I also read about how successful music ed program is in NY school (if interested, read Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers).
http://www.therootsofmusic.com/

Jorge Munoz
Drives a bus during the day, and at night prepares and delivers homemade meals to unemployed people in New York.
http://www.anangelinqueens.org/

Brad Blauser
Provides wheelchairs for Iraqi kids so they are empowered with mobility. Also aids parents too.
http://www.wheelchairsforiraqikids.com/

Budi Soehardl
Budi is a pilot, but he also started an orphanage in Indonesia. They have 49 kids.
http://www.roslinorphanage.org/

Andrea Ivory
Provides mammograms to uninsured women for early detection of breast cancer. If you see her dress at the awards show, the bustier part of the dress (I think) signifies the pink ribbon of breast cancer.
http://www.flbreasthealth.com/

First of all, MoMA is exhibiting Tim Burton's work.

Aside from that, if you don't live in New York, check out this site I found:
http://www.timburtoncollective.com/multimedia.html

It features episodes of Stain Boy, and some characters from the Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy. There is an edition where the cover is black and purple (beautiful cloth bound). Most of the animations are done in Flash and are beautiful (they are funny, ridden with sarcasm). Tim Burton is a creative genius.

Also, check out his free fonts (which are cool, and not as cheesy as most free fonts):
http://www.timburtoncollective.com/fonts/fonts.html

Here are some good ones:

Anonymous

Feds monetary policies create financial disasters; Great example of a pyromaniac working for the fire department.

Charles Hampton

Thank you for being a light to the world. I have every confidence that Wikipedia will help lead us out of the dark ages.

Albert Morton [this guy donated $100]

I never thought about Wikipedia needing money. OK! I'm on board now.

Karl Jay Garcia

If I could only have ONE website, it would be wikipedia

Adam Burton [he donated 2 Canadian dollars]

I dont have much this year....but thank you for letting me use this wonderful source of knowledge,