Home sweet home!

I suppose it's finally safe to let slip that I've bought a home in Seattle!

When I was out there visiting in February, I came across a condo that I absolutely feel in love with. It's in a fairly new 6-story building right on Capitol Hill, with easy freeway access for the undoubtedly dreadful commute. Perhaps I'll start listening to Podcasts during the drive.

All the papers have been signed, so now it's just a matter of waiting sixty days and hoping all goes as planned...

Here are some pics..






Yay!

School has been hectic.. more posts to come soon!

mates

Imagine this scenario:

It's midnight. You're a college student studying for an exam in a library on campus. In a study room 20 ft away sits another student studying for the same exam. The class has 150 students. You don't know any of them. Wouldn't it be great if there were some way to be introduced and make a friend to study with?

How about this one:

Your company has sent you to a client site 2,000 miles away from home. Coincidentally, an old friend is in town on the same days. Your trips overlap, but as you only catch up with each other a couple of times a year, you have no way of knowing that you happen to be staying on the same city block.

These are some of the problems mates (formerly M-Chat) attempts to solve. What is mates, you ask? Well, late last year, a couple of EECS students and I applied for a grant through the GROCS program at the University of Michigan. Our mission: Build an infrastructure to introduce and connect individuals based on physical location, class registration, group membership, academic interests, and other relationships, thereby laying the groundwork for the development of a multitude of next-generation collaborative learning and communication applications.

Allow me to back up a little and explain..

Last semester, I took a mobile technology class in which I led a team in developing a location based service. We built a GPS-powered application for the Pocket PC that would show people a list of nearby friends. They could then select a couple of friends, and find meeting places (coffee shops, restaurants, libraries) near the group. The application interacted with a PHP based web service and received results in an XML format. It was simple, and designed and built in only 8 weeks, but it peaked my interested in GPS and location-based services in general.

Then, late last semester, my friend and classmate Ayush Agarwal introduced me to another EECS student and friend of his, Jeff Powers. The three of us held multiple brainstorming sessions, and eventually, based on Ayush's passion for design, an idea Jeff had been toying with for quite awhile, and my interest in location based services, mates was born.

mates is also a web service (implemented in SOAP, again with PHP). Users supply the server with information including their location, friends, interests, and courses. The server returns information about other users in the system with whom there exists some relationship (for example, all users within a 300ft radius who are taking Physics 100 and are a friend of a friend, along with who the common friend is).

So how is mates different than the wide range of existing social networking applications out there (Friendster, orkut, Facebook)? Unlike those applications, mates strives to be an open infrastructure. We want to bring aspects of social networking into existing applications -- from Friendster to Instant Messaging.

Wouldn't it be cool if your buddy list could instantly populate a group for one of your classes if you had a question you would like to ask other students in the class? Or if your phone could receive a text message every time an old friend you rarely come in contact with happened to be nearby? What if you're simply looking to meet some nearby people with common interests? (we're talking feet here, not "within 10 miles of zipcode X!)

(Concept art)

(A cool Avalon interface we're playing around with)

In order to demonstrate the potential of mates, we're also building a proof of concept client using the latest beta of Avalon. The proof of concept client includes an amazing visualization and a working but simple messaging system.

Anyhow, I just thought I'd share some information about the project to which I've been devoting a good portion of my time lately.

Blast from the past!

A year and a half ago, while in Paris, a Norwegian reporter approached my buddies and me and propositioned us for an interview. She was doing a story on something related to the decline of American tourism in Europe. This was at the height of conservative America labeling France as traitorous and government cafeterias renaming replacing "French Fries" with "Freedom Fries" on their menus.

We were all happy to chat with her (though "Patrick Hox" chose to use a pseudonym after accidentally letting his company name slip). As my friends know, I tend to lean left politically, though I try to keep a pretty open mind. Keith leans right. "Patrick Hox".. well.. is probably too busy playing video games to think about leaning either way. I'd say we were pretty well-fit to represent our country, eh?

Anyhow, the reporter left us with the name of her publication. We searched for an article shortly after our trip, but weren't able to find one. Today, a year and a half later, I was cleaning out my bookmarks and came across the publication's web site. For the hell of it, I proceeded to search on my name, and found an article!

Amerikanerne svikter Paris

Interestingly, according to the site, it wasn't published until January 2005.

Anyhow, I thought it pretty cool, photo and all. My Swedish friend Dan translated a bit for us (Norwegian is somewhat similar to Swedish). Here were some highlights:

Down from the (eiffel) tower come three young men who were making fun of French fries being named freedom fries in the US last fall.

"Difference between the land and the people: these three American tourists (names) think France is a nice country, but they're not sure about the people" (Undoubtedly derived from Keith's "I like France, I just don't like the people" comment. He also enjoys shouting "George Bush Rules!" at Parisian bars. Go Keith.)

"I boycotted French products in the US, but I chose to come here anyways" says 22-year old engineering student Kieth Moller from Michigan.

"It's a nice country but people aren't as nice", he said. But his friend Patrick Hox from San Francisco disagrees. "It's no worse here than in Amsterdam" he says. But the third man Adam Herscher thinks the French are good at knowing the difference between Americans and American politics.

Here's a funny attempt at computer generated translation.

What a trip...

Quick updates!

Midterms are finally over and I'm on Spring Break!

I'm in Seattle with Mike through Wednesday checking out the various neighborhoods and trying to decide where I'd like to live. Today we visited Redmond, Bellevue, Kirkland, and the University area. I think we'll check out Capitol Hill tomorrow. My basic requirements are a reasonable commute, a relatively new (<10 yrs old) building, and a young, exciting environment (yuppy, artsy, whatever..). Oh, and a dishwasher and washer/dryer in unit (read: convenience). I'm looking at 1-bedrooms right now, but if anyone wants to be my roommate, feel free to drop me a line! I'm also open to any neighborhood advice anyone might have.. so comments will be appreciated as always.

Interestingly, the hotel we're staying at, Hotel Andra, is the first and only non-Hyatt hotel in the US to become a T-Mobile HotSpot. So, I succumbed and added HotSpot service to my mobile phone service for $19.99 a month. They said I could cancel after my stay and it would be prorated, which yields a total cost of $2.67 for wireless Internet during my stay should I decide to do so. So far the hotel has been really great. I found a great deal on Travelzoo.

I'm not sure if people still use Friendster. They've finally rewritten their app in PHP, and it's significantly better than before. Unfortunately, I think they missed their window of opportunity -- but time will tell. The only reason I mention it is because I was able to perform a pretty refined search on my social network (friends within 2 degrees of me and 25 miles of Seattle + a bunch of other options). If these social networking apps provided a bit more incentive/value after the initial "Wow" period, maybe we would start using them again?

Over the last week and a half there's been a bit of controversy over the AutoLink feature of the new Google Toolbar. I've skimmed a wide range of opinions in the "blogosphere", and disagree with most of them. My own opinion? Just like any other product.. you no like, you no buy. Oh wait, it's free. On what grounds do you have to complain again? Yes, I hope Google makes it as customizable as possible. But until then, I categorize issues like Barnes and Noble ISBNs linking to Amazon.com as carelessness rather than evil. Isn't it interesting how as of the time of this writing, Google Local listings still point to MapQuest, not Google Maps for directions? Carelessness. Or is it because Maps is still in "beta"? Don't get me started on Google's beta policy. Back to the toolbar.. Yes, it does put Google in the position to render pages and add/alter links as they see fit, even to their own economic advantage. Heck, they could even insert ads into pages as they're loaded! But they don't. And if you're concerned, don't use it. And if you're concerned about the masses using it, provide a better, less "evil", alternative -- a Mozilla powered browser plugin, perhaps, that isn't backed by a particular corporation (oh wait, isn't Mozilla in bed with Google these days?)

On a less controversial note, I just came across this over at my friend Jonas's blog. Pretty neat.

Finally, as my last quick update of the day, I'd like to take this opportunity to give Kudos to Northwest Airlines. Yesterday I found myself enjoying a burger at Chilis in the (awesome) Detroit Metro Airport. The service was a bit slow, and I found myself wondering if I was going to have to leave without finishing my lunch in order to catch my flight. I found myself thinking.. "I know this airport has a wireless network, but rather than just providing a redirect to paid Internet access, I wish they would provide a redirect to airline services like checking flight/gate status." Then I vaguely remembered some wireless services offered by Northwest. The airport wireless network doesn't have the redirect, which is unfortunate since my phone has GPRS and WiFi, but I was able to hop on the GPRS network, access
wireless.nwa.com, and check my flight status. It was delayed 15 minutes -- the perfect amount of time to comfortably finish eating.

I'm well aware that I'm not the average consumer but rather the exception to the rule here. But I do strongly feel the future of mobile computing lies in-part in location based services (like airline services that become readily available when entering an airport region). I have a lot more to say on this subject.. it's something I've been researching and playing with in-depth for the last 6 months. It also ties in with social networking, and realizing some continuous value from a social networking system. I hope to share some of my recent project work here soon.. but this.. is only.. a quick update.

3:30am

midterms all week long
coffee brews outside it snows
sleep is for the weak

*Collapses into bed*

Incentive to recycle

Trash/Recycling bin combos like this one are slowly popping up all over campus. It's a pretty creative idea -- make the recycling bin larger so there's an incentive to fill it up in order to preserve precious space in the tiny attached trash bin.

Really makes you think.. "Can what I'm about to toss out be recycled?"

Will this succeed? Will people be willing to put up with the annoyance of a minuscule trash can in an attempt to save the planet? Will we begin seeing more of these?

Hmm...

There's something slightly unsettling about walking through the Computer Science building and seeing a woman just a few years older than me with a big old cast covering her wrist from her recent carpel tunnel surgery.

Will that be me?

Midterms make me sleepy

Well, it's that time again.. midterm exams.

If there's one thing I won't miss about school it'll be the two weeks leading up to exam time. Life has been absolutely insane lately. Luckily, there's a light at the end of the tunnel. All I've got left are one take-home exam and one midterm paper, and a few other smaller reading and homework assignments.

EECS 376 has been the bane of my existence this term. Here's the course description:

An introduction to computation theory: finite automata, regular languages, pushdown automata, context-free languages, Turing machines, recursive languages and functions, and computational complexity.

Don't get me wrong -- It's actually been quite interesting and relevant. It's just one of those experiences I'm sure I'll value more once it's behind me (like high school, right?). The homework assignments consist almost exclusively of proofs, like this one:

Define the language INFLBA = {<M> : M is an LBA and L(M) is infinite}. Prove that neither INFLBA nor its complement are recognizable.

Can you do it?

Despite the difficulty and endless workload, they're actually a bit fun to conquer. Wikipedia has been an amazing resource in explaining complex concepts and theorems.

Spring break begins next Friday, and I'll be taking a short trip out to Seattle. When I interviewed with Microsoft back in November, I didn't get much of a chance to explore the area. Actually, I didn't leave myself time to explore the area in order to avert depression in the event that I didn't get the job. So now, I figure it'll be fun to go back and explore some of the neighborhoods. I've also got a dinner planned with my future coworkers -- really looking forward to that.

I'm also beginning to plan a trip to Israel in May with some family and friends to visit some family and friends, and to have an all around good time. More on that later.

Well, it's time to get some sleep. 10 hours of studying at the Media Union has just about drained every last bit of energy out of my system. What a way to spend your Sunday.

/pizza

A little over a week ago I blogged about how Ugrub's No online ordering. No hassle. mantra was a step in the wrong direction.

Today I saw this on blogdex:

While playing EverQuest II just type /pizza and a web browser will launch the online ordering section of pizzahut.com. Fill in your info and just kick back until fresh pizza is delivered straight to your door.

Kickass!

Newest Google Toolbar beta rocks

Just downloaded the latest beta (3) of the Google Toolbar, and I have to say I'm pretty impressed.

The coolest of the three new features is the Gmail style form spell-checker. It's a great leap forward for web-app developers, who will no longer have to provide their own spell-checkers independently (Yes, Firefox has a spell-check plugin as well, but it's of poor quality, like Blogger's). So, seeing as I was just recently ranting about Blogger's horrible spell-checker, I'm happy to see Google take this out of the web-app and put it into userland (also lets you keep a single dictionary across multiple sites).

The AutoLink feature, which finds text addresses and turns them into clickable links to Google Maps, seems to be pretty useful as well. I heard about a browser plugin that does something similar for phone numbers and Skype, and I'm sure we'll be seeing lots more of this type of thing quite soon.

Then, of course, there's the word translator. It's pretty neat, but seems to be limited to only a few languages, and is probably more useful at this point to those who aren't fluent in English.

Go Google! Keep on innovating!

This post spell-checked by Google Toolbar beta 3

Why am I blogging (again)?

Well, Mark Jen's story made the top section of CNN.com's front page headlines. Here it is first hand, and here's some commentary by Robert Scoble.

Mark's story hit a bit close to home for me, and has definitely gotten me thinking quite a bit over the last few days as to where I'd like to go with this blog.

I've seen blogs that have gotten friends into trouble within their social networks after posting rather personal and/or defamatory thoughts.

Now, the whole world has seen Mark Jen, a former Google employee, fired for posting some negative commentary on his employer.

So, it's time to revisit my mission. Back in November, in one of my first posts, I talked about my reasons for blogging. Those reasons pretty much remain intact. I like the fact that blogging allows me to:

- Reach many people who care rather than a few people who might care via email or some other mechanism.

- Express my thoughts publicly in a semi-permanent way (certainly a double-edged sword).

- Receive feedback in the form of (potentially anonymous) comments and continuous coversation.

Additionally, since I've started blogging, I've received emails from friends I hadn't heard from in ages and thought provoking comments from friends I see every day. It's been very cool. It's also inspired me to begin including a little more information about my life on my blog, in an effort to keep readers who know me and care to know me informed. It's still a public forum, so there will be certain lines I won't be crossing, but I certainly want to begin writing more about some interesting things I've been learning and projects I've been working on. Expect more of this type of thing soon.

Another unexpected thing I've found is that writing has been rather therapeutic. Don't get me wrong, I vow that my blog will never become a cheap substitute for therapy (and yes, I've seen this happen!), but sitting here at 9:30pm, candles burning, Lapsang Souchong in hand, writing away in my blog.. is actually a relaxing break from the fast-paced world of school and work. If you've never tried keeping a journal, a blog, or any other kind of expressive form of media for yourself, I suggest you do so. You just might enjoy it as much as I.

As a quick aside, I do plan on choosing a new design for the blog's layout (or designing my own, if I can't find one I like). This center-column thing I've currently got going on is a horrible waste of precious screen space. "As soon as I can get around to it..."

As for blogging and work, I suppose that's a subject for another time -- in part because I'm still mulling it over in my head. On some level, there's a fear of being restricted to only sharing the positive, and having to bite my tongue on the negative. But like I said.. lots of time to figure that one out..

Finally, I'll end on a rather random note. This blog averages 300-500 readers on a normal day. That's readers, not reloads, and it doesn't include the RSS feed. Who are you people? :-) Drop me a line and say hello. Or better yet, post a comment!

Now.. off to watch tonight's episode of 24. Cheers!

New comments mechanism!

Aaaaawesome!

The Blogger team over at Google has finally improved the comments mechanism. Readers (you) can now post comments under your real name without registering as a Blogger user. You can also leave a URL to your own blog or other web site.

Additionally, blog comments can now contain some (safe) html tags.

I'm glad Google finally got around to making this improvement. It's been a looong time coming. I hope that some of the amazingly innovative UI features of Google's other services start trickling into Blogger soon (read: Gmail spellcheck!).

Prominent Journalist Claims Microsoft is Dying.

Michael Malone (Forbes, WSJ, Economist, Fortune, NYT high tech writer) claims Microsoft is dying.

A few highlights:

"When was the last time you thought about Microsoft, except in frustration or anger?"

Eh, go check out some of the innovation on display over at Channel9. You can't judge Microsoft as a company, and conclude it is "dying", by how often your PC crashes. But yes, I completely agree that the average consumer tends to have a love-hate relationship with Microsoft, and it's something the company needs to work on -- their "Brand Harmony", if you will.

When was the last time you thought about your cell phone provider or cable company, except in frustration or anger? Is it a problem they need to fix? Yes. Are their businesses dying? Probably not.

"He's [Bill Gates] been devoting more time to philanthropy than capitalism."

Sorry Bill, damned if you do, damned if you don't.

"Does anyone out there love MSN? I doubt it; it seems to share AOL's fate of being disliked but not hated enough to change your e-mail account"

I'm not quite so sure on this one. My mom loves (and needs) AOL. AOL and MSN have appeal to a certain demographic, which clearly isn't Michael Malone or me, so it's difficult to make sweeping statements that aren't backed by hard numbers.

"And do college kids still dream of going to work at MS? Five years ago it was a source of pride to go to work for the Evil Empire -- now, who cares? It's just Motorola with wetter winters."

Ouch! I realize I'm a bit biased on this one, but looking around within the Computer Science program here, everyone dreams of going to work at MS. It's one of the few innovative companies (along with Apple, Google, and Amazon.com) that recruit at the University (and actively seek recent grads in general). I'm going to save my breath here, since Scoble wrote a great response to this that was right on the money.

For now, though, none of that is obvious. Microsoft is still the dominant company in high-tech, the cynosure of all those things people love and hate about computing, the defining company of our time. It is huge, powerful and confident.

But if you sniff the air, you can just make out the first hints of rot.

Uh huh. You could be right. I hope you're not. Microsoft, like every other company, has quite a bit of room to better itself, and always will, as did Apple 4 years ago, when you claimed it was dying too.

Gmail Invasion!

I'm seeing more and more of this on campus:



(the @umich.edu address is generally set to forward to the @gmail one.)

First, it was Computer Science students with 31337 access to a limited number of Gmail invites. Soon thereafter it spread like a virus to non-CS students. Now, it's even made its way to faculty and staff!

Very very interesting..

A friend of mine over at the School of Information recently sent me a survey as to the usability of the University's current web-based email system (fwiw, it's horrible). I wonder if they think they can improve it enough to compete with Gmail use on campus.

There's been a lot of coverage of Open Source software projects competing with Microsoft products.. do they/can they compete with the likes of Google?

Google Maps

Lots of buzz this morning about Google Maps.

At first glance, I'm pretty impressed. Google has yet again blown the competition out of the water with its amazing user interface.

So.. a couple thoughts come to mind:

1. Is Google going to publish a web service API similar to MapPoint? It's a challenge to build a successful business model out of a web service offering, especially considering Google's revenue is deep-rooted in advertising, not subscription services. Still, it could certainly pose competition to Microsoft, which for us users, is always a good thing (fuels innovation, drives down prices, etc). If it was free, this could power a new generation of open source location-aware software and location-based services.

2. Is Google going to leverage location information entered into Google Maps by providing location-aware advertisements through their Adwords/Adsense cash cow? Are we at the point yet where the average consumer would like to see ads from local businesses, or would the average consumer view this as an invasion of privacy? Is the ability to opt-out of such a service sufficient?

There's certainly a lot going on under the surface here.. This undoubtedly has implications for other Google services like Google Local too.

Anyhow, running late to class.. anyone else have any thoughts about the new Google Maps service?