November 20th, 2006
My brother sent me a link to a site about regifting stories some of which are pretty amusing. On the side is a poll asking people about their reasons for regifting. I have considered regifting in the past, but in the end I don’t know if I’ve ever done it. It mostly comes up in cases when I really don’t like something I’ve been given. But then I ask myself: if I really don’t like it then would I want to inflict it on a friend? Plus there’s the potential embarrassment of being thought of as someone who might’ve actually found the item valuable. Hmm…
Posted in Humor/Fun, Miscellaneous, Web sites | Comments Off on Gift season
November 20th, 2006
Taken: November 18, 2006 (What is Project 365?)
I have never seen chestnuts this huge. They are scattered around campus and initially I didn’t even know what they were. In fact, picking them up made me realize that this is probably what this squirrel was holding the other day.
Posted in Project 365 | Comments Off on Project 365: #25
November 20th, 2006
Posted in Del.icio.us Links | Comments Off on Links for 2006-11-20
November 19th, 2006
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comparing book prices across various international Amazon sites
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incredibly disturbing story about sex-trafficking rings in California
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Do-it-yourself (diy) design community
Posted in Del.icio.us Links | Comments Off on Links for 2006-11-19
November 19th, 2006
Taken: November 17, 2006 (What is Project 365?)
Northwestern played Stanford in basketball yesterday. These two schools don’t play each other much so it was a special treat to have the ‘Cats in town. Although NU lost, they played a good game. It was one of the most fun ones I’ve seen them play actually. I honestly believe if it hadn’t been for the home court advantage, the outcome would’ve been different. But the way Stanford’s stadium is set up the students stand along half the court and are quite a presence. Weird element of the game: the Stanford redwood dancing mascot (?). What’s up with that?
And no, I don’t plan on making basketball court photos a regular on Project 365.
Posted in General update | Comments Off on Project 365: #24
November 18th, 2006
Taken: November 16, 2006 (What is Project 365?)
One of my favorite areas at the Center is the hot beverage counter where I can choose from among over a dozen teas. See the larger context herep.
Posted in Project 365 | Comments Off on Project 365: #23
November 18th, 2006
Does anyone around here play Fantasy Congress? I’d heard about it before, but now that I was invited to join a league, I started looking into it in more depth.
As in other fantasy sports, you – the Citizen – draft a team of real-life legislators from the U.S. Congress and score points for your team’s successes.
However, as one commentator aptly notes: “[I]t’s lifelike: you win by getting bills passed, not by passing good bills.”
If you only care about winning the game, sure, you can compile a team of senators and represenatives who have an active record. But do you really want to be sitting around hoping that some real-life bill that makes your stomach turn is successful just so you can score some points in FC?
I can see the appeal to some extent, but overall I am not convinced the system is refined enough at this point to get me sufficiently enthusiastic. And while my first reaction was that at least it has educational value by teaching people about the legislative process, now I’m thinking that since it is most likely to appeal to folks who already know much about politics, it’s not clear that it will really spread the word far and wide about how the system works.
That said, I don’t have much experience with fantasy sports so I may be missing some important factors. Moreover, I do think the idea is interesting and certainly impressive that some college students thought it up and managed to execute itp. And to be fair, it sounds like its creators – four undergraduate students at Claremont McKenna – are working on refining the system.
Posted in Soc/Pol/Econ | 1 Comment »
November 18th, 2006
Posted in Del.icio.us Links | 2 Comments »
November 17th, 2006
Taken: November 15, 2006 (What is Project 365?)
On Wednesday, I gave my seminar presentation to fellow Fellows. I took this photo an hour after the Q&A had ended. You can see on the clock on the right that it was 10pm.
The title of my presentation was The World is Bumpy: Information Technology and Social Inequality. It was interesting to prepare for this talk as I took several steps back from where I usually start my presentations given that this was a more varied crowd. The questions and comments at the end were great, it’s wonderful to get feedback from a smart diverse group of scholars. Lots for me to think about.
In retrospect, I wish I had taken a photo of the people sitting in the seminar room. Bummer.
Posted in Project 365, Research | Comments Off on Project 365: #22
November 17th, 2006
Taken: November 14, 2006 (What is Project 365?)
On Tuesday, the Berkeley-Stanford inequality group met for dinner and a talk at the Stanford Faculty Club.
Posted in Palo Alto, Project 365 | Comments Off on Project 365: #21
November 17th, 2006
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a project to help raise money for a bridge in Albania with the goal of uniting two parts of a village that get separated each year for a period of time
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By supporting and defending civil society access to information and communication tools and skills, APC has been an integral partner in global efforts for social, economic and ecological justice.
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curious that it’s not possible to enter a Google Account and take the call that way, but it’s still a neat feature (assuming you don’t mind them having your cell phone number)
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Ten teams descended on Palo Alto to compete in a video/photo scavenger hunt. The competition was fierce and the creativity darn near brilliant.
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coordinate among friends to split the cost of a gift
Posted in Del.icio.us Links | Comments Off on Links for 2006-11-17
November 16th, 2006
Taken: November 13, 2006 (What is Project 365?)
Squirrel outside my office at CASBS. It’s the third in a series of three I took one after the other. In the first one, two squirrels are facing each other. In the next one, the squirrel with the food (?) turns toward me. The third one is that same squirrel in action.
I have not been a big fan of squirrels ever since one chewed its way through the screens into my room at the Old GC in grad school.
Posted in Project 365 | 3 Comments »
November 16th, 2006
Is this is a new Google Maps feature? I noticed the Google logo with Africa as the “g” on Google Maps today. I wonder if this is a way of letting people know that Google Maps now covers that continent. Neat.
Posted in IT/Comm, Products/Services, Web sites | Comments Off on Africa on Google Maps
November 16th, 2006
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November 15th, 2006
Taken: November 12, 2006 (What is Project 365?)
I went for a walk on Sunday around campus with my walking buddy and took some photos of the Hoover Tower, the Rodin Sculpture garden and other assorted sights.
Posted in Project 365 | Comments Off on Project 365: #19
November 15th, 2006
Posted in Del.icio.us Links | Comments Off on Links for 2006-11-15
November 14th, 2006
I’m collecting examples of interesting ways in which people use various online services for their benefit. Of course, I can come up with lots of hypotheticals and examples from my own life, but it’s helpful to have concrete cases from the world at large.
Here, for example, is an interesting case of IT being put to use for the potential benefit of folks in a realm having little to do with IT. It’s about the use of Google Earth to back up claims about the value of some land that the government in India wants to acquire from farmers for limited compensation. The piece doesn’t say whether the use of these images ultimately led to a different outcome, but the potential is there.
Another relevant example is how people exploit spelling errors on ebay listings to get good deals. Because most people searching for those items don’t find them, there is much less of a bidding war and the final price is lower than would be otherwise. There are now even Web sites that help you exploit this, for example, eBooBoos does the guessing on your behalf. The results of a search on “turtle” yield items such as a turle neck sweater or a trutle box. (One wonders why ebay hasn’t worked on this issue in-house, but that’s another matter.)
I am looking for other examples concerning the beneficial uses of IT by average folks in particular, although interesting uses by super techies are welcomed as well. I’m not so much interested in (at this time) cases of xyz Web site helping to deal with other realms of IT uses (e.g. a handy tool for following blog posts), but uses that have a relatively direct impact on other realms of life as well. If you can share pointers to articles like the one above regarding the farmers in India that would be great. I also welcome stories from personal experiences. This is all related to some talks and papers I’m working on. Thanks!
Posted in IT/Comm, Research | 2 Comments »
November 14th, 2006
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November 13th, 2006
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CS work on privacy
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or here comes Web 3.0
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Posted in Del.icio.us Links | Comments Off on Links for 2006-11-13
November 13th, 2006
Taken: November 11, 2006 (What is Project 365?)
Although watching a Stanford basketball game is not as exciting for me as watching Northwestern play, it was still fun to welcome back the college basketball season. And just to spice things up a bit, this coming Friday NU is playing Stanford here so if all goes well I’ll get to go to a really exciting game.
Posted in Project 365 | Comments Off on Project 365: #18
