Ann Arbor has Street View

I wish I had known they were photographing, would have stood outside my apartment to be immortalized in Google Maps. So, a brief tour of Ann Arbor.


My street, the one I live on


I work in the big brick building, same street as before. My sphere of influence is rather small.


The Brown Jug. For my program, this is sort of The Max, or The Bronze.


Tree-lined block. Most look like this.


Main Street. Usually a lot of people walking dogs here.

There, now you never have to visit. Continue reading "Ann Arbor has Street View"!

Wednesday, with some bonuses

Long day, busy organizing for an experiment that starts tomorrow morning. It was also hot.

When I got home, two surprises awaited me. One was my latest Netflix movie, I Am Legend. I never got around to seeing it in theaters, even though I wanted to, and now I know a lot of spoilers about the plot, but I'm still interested. One question does remain, however. Does Will Smith say "welcome to earth!" or "get off my car!" to the vampires? I doubt it, but haven't given up hope. Will Smith never lets me down. The second main character appears to be a dog. That's also good.



The second surprise was my new Western Digital My Passport 250 gb portable hard drive (hat tip James Foreman). I've never been responsible about backing up the information on the computers I use. I don't have a system, just data strewn about. Now, with this tiny new drive, I'll have no excuse not to back up often. My back up anxiety stems from an irrational fear of accidently erasing everything, permanently, in the process. I know this isn't as easy as it is in the movies, where people sit down at a computer, hit ENTER, and suddenly a dialog box appears, displaying FILES DELETED. Regardless, I'm getting back up for this backing up. Nick, brother, soon to be world traveller, and, importantly, knowledgeable tech person, has promised support. If I'm not spotted on the internet for a few days, it means my computer exploded and someone should send help.
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UPDATE: I Am Legend is really good, though the third act is a bit discombobulated. Will Smith is excellent. Oh, if I'm ever stuck in NYC in the aftermath of a worldwide viral epidemic, I want a highly trained German Shepherd beside me. No humans necessary. Humans get in the way. Continue reading "Wednesday, with some bonuses"!

Free of distractions (almost)

Chicago was a blast. I explored the city on foot and by subway, taking pictures all the way.


Many more pictures on Flickr.

There were a few good science talks, but I spent most of my time away from the conference, eating, walking, enjoying Dunkin Donuts and museums. The Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, and Art Institute of Chicago offered a nice diversion from the formal structure of the conference. I tried to soak up a little culture all weekend.

I opted to take a train home, rather than ride with a friend as planned. This was my first AMTRAK ride, first long-distance train ride of any kind. I have to say, as one with some experience riding in airplanes, train travel is orders of magnitude better. Better service, better comfort, better efficiency, better cost, better everything. If train travel can be optimized in such a way that it is more practical for more Americans, I think it can alleviate some of the current stress on the airline industry. This is tricky, in part because of the logistical concerns associated with fast long-distance American trips, but that shouldn't stop investment in better train infrastructure. Picture Japan's system, then multiply by 1000. That's doable, right?

My trip to Chicago (and other brief, recent departures from Ann Arbor - one to a wedding, another to an art show) provided generous distraction from the ever-increasing pressure of graduate school. Summer is now in full swing, and I have three months to produce solid work before teaching and classes begin in September. With my mini-vacations over, I have no more excuses to put off digging into this work. I'm happy about this, actually, because as exciting as those distractions were, they were never powerful enough to rid my mind of guilt over not working. They gave me an easy out, an excuse for putting off the inevitably time-consuming effort I will have to put into my upcoming projects. Now, hopefully, I can focus on my current experiment, fellowship applications, and the writing of a review paper that has been on the back burner for two months.

I say my distractions are over, but that's not true. This weekend, family and friends are scheduled to visit, and they will certainly keep me from thinking about data. Instead, I will be hard-pressed to come up with fun things with which to entertain them. I take this responsibility seriously, even if my guests don't care. Though my head will be racked with grad-school guilt, I will also know that my worries of procrastination aren't totally legitimate. Such distractions - vacations, events, visitors - no matter how intrusive on my science goals, are nevertheless essential to my overall sanity. One thing I have decided is that I do not want this program to rule my life when it doesn't have to. I can take the time to maintain friendships, visit family, and venture out of Ann Arbor from time to time. If that means sacrificing the occasional opportunity to work, so be it. Continue reading "Free of distractions (almost)"!

Terrible Lizard

Beware, if you find yourself in Indonesia (or Chicago) one day. The Shedd Aquarium has this notorious monitor lizard.

Continue reading "Terrible Lizard"!

Windy City Excursion

I'm traveling to Chicago this weekend to attend a conference with some grad-student friends. Chicago is one of my favorite cities, so it should be a good time. I'll post about it while I'm there, hopefully with some decent pictures.

In preparing for the trip, I searched Google Maps for my hotel's location. Has anyone noticed they have added Wikipedia to the maps of most areas of the country? If you toggle the option on, dozens of tiny W's pop up, each representing a Wikipedia page corresponding to that location.


View Larger Map

Most of the articles relate to architecture and geography, but one can assume Google is adding more every day. This is such a useful idea. Along with street view and the photos option, you can get a pretty realistic account of a place, beyond simple geography. It's one thing to read about local attractions in a book or on a website, but integrating that information into a map allows you to see at a glance where in space it's located. When I visit a new place, I try to form a map of it in my head, based on the real map, and refer to it as I go. This just makes that easier. Information association and merging of this sort is really powerful, and it seems like a lot of new web applications are going in that direction.

Aside from conference talks, I plan to spend some time at one of the main museum campuses.


View Larger Map

I've been to the Field Museum multiple times, but wouldn't mind going back, it's so good. The Shedd Aquarium, however, I haven't been to, so that's on the list of things to do. Continue reading "Windy City Excursion"!

Something to watch/TiVo/download from the internet

Airing on public television his fall.



Mario Batali and Gwyneth Paltrow travel and cook Spanish food. They are friends? It appears so, because, at one point, she calls him "Batals." They are totally BFFs. Willie Nelson music and Michael Stipe from R.E.M makes an appearance. Bizarre, sure, but this looks sort of interesting. It also features Mark Bittman, a food guy for the New York Times. Coincidentally, Bittman has a NYT blog called Bitten. Continue reading "Something to watch/TiVo/download from the internet"!

Media wallz

Sensory tables are often used in elementary schools to provide children, especially those with developmental disabilities like autism, something to play with and focus on. The're filled with things like small blocks, stones, sand, popcorn, buttons - great for providing tactile stimulation. That's nice, and I'd sure like to have one, but it's sort of a stone-age solution. The sensory table of the future will look a lot different. Echoing something out of Minority Report, this interactive media wall is now on sale at Neiman Marcus. Only 100,000 dollars! Check out the demonstration video, it's so cool. Here's another one from Youtube.



Oh, I want one. I'm used to the touch screen on my iPhone, but this thing recognizes some really complicated hand gestures. Imagine having one on every flat surface in your house.

If things pan out as they do in Minority Report, we'll be doing our computing like this, by 2052.

Continue reading "Media wallz"!