He doesn’t look a day older than 39, does he? Boys got up this morning and served him a pop tart and diet coke in bed- what could be better? Then he opened gifts on the couch. He’s in the design house- drop by and wish him a Happy Birthday!
Research through design
The “Research through design” talk—given at CHI 2007 by three CMU profs, John Zimmerman, Jodi Forlizzi and Shelley Evenson—was particularly nice to hear as a companion in the same session to Eli Blevis’ paper on sustainable design. Their framework for defining design research within the HCI community is culled from four years of workshops, interviews and a review of literature. And like Eli’s work, they believe design to be the intended transfer of a current world state to a preferred one.
Four Baby Ruth and Free Internet
I’m sitting in the San Francisco airport, near the Andale Mexican restaurant. My laptop power is dwindling, even with the screen brightness set so low I’m thinking I am developing glaucoma. I’m down to one more bite-size Baby Ruth candy bar and thankful the Internet connection is free. This isn’t what I thought I would be doing at 7p Eastern. By now, I should be landing in Minneapolis and trying to make my connecting flight home. But a funny thing happened on the way to the concourse …
Soccer, Truth and intimacy.
A few catch-up discussions to share. Yesterday, we arrived at playgroup after two of his buddies had already initiated a rather competitive soccer game. Carter’s reaction was to pull out his book and sit inside reading. I settled in next to him to see if he needed assistance in joining his friends, or if he [...]
Value in the Network
Last Tuesday, Shveta, Matt and I attended BayCHI, a monthly gathering of area HCI folk to hear a couple of talks. Since Matt had a longer drive back up to San Francisco, we bailed on the second presentation so we had a chance to talk ourselves. However, the first one was thought provoking. hannon Clark—who very recently launched nela.mobi and is involved with Meshwalk—gave a somewhat confusing presentation on the economic value in network structure.
Sticking it to the man.
Our new TV “compromise” is that we don’t watch during the week, but they have free access to their TIVO treasure trove on the weekend. For such a dramatic change, Archie has required some sort of methodone. We’ve chosen Noggin. This morning, he was happily playing Maisy alphabet blocks. Friendly Maisy Man: The letter G [...]
Landscaping, naturally
One of the appeals of our current Bloomington house was the back yard. It wasn’t fenced in at the time, but easily contained for our two outdoor pets by leveraging the various fences neighbors had constructed. The lawn was in pretty nice shape, and the three trees in the back of the house were big and shady. Fast forward eight years, and the yard isn’t so attractive. It might be a fun family project to explore the possibility of National Wildlife Federation certification down the road.