thoughtcrumbs

Miscellany

Too much navel gazing here lately. Sorry. At some point I'll write more coherent and substantive posts about HCI research, but that's what I talk about all day. Not that I'm tired--far from it--but some of my local friends read this site and I don't want to be that guy at the party that always tells the same stories.

But I'm constantly thinking about technology, how people use it, how it changes them, and how they change it. A random list of things I've been reading and talking about this week: natural language processing, affective trust, Ajax, the implicit association test, GOMS, hurricane katrina donation coordination, social networks, fMRIs and neuroscience, ambiguity in communication.

Some other random things:

• Tommy Emmanuel played the Calliope Folk Music Society concert last night. It was breathtaking.


• Carol Lee Espy opened for him. She had a capo. It was red. She called it her "mid-life crisis capo."


• I found a place to get Nancy's yogurt in Pittsburgh. Yay, East End Food Co-op, even if you're somewhat disappointing in all other regards.


• Speaking of disappointing, a friend unintentionally hurt me earlier this week. And I'm having trouble getting over it.


• The morning guy at Coffee Tree Roasters makes foamier lattes than the evening woman. I've validated this empirically about ten times in the last two weeks.


• Anastassia and I went for a pseudo-hike yesterday. Really, it was a flat gravel path around a chemical treatment plant and shooting range. But for a last-minute expedition on an unexpectedly sunny day, it was great. Especially the chance to talk with a friend for four hours.


• Why didn't anyone tell me Jonathan Safran Foer was going to be in town?


• My superhero fantasy is forthcoming. It will involve mind reading. No, mind changing.


• Going to see the Talich Quartet tomorrow night.


• My cell phone keeps taking pictures of my pocket. There's no way to lock the external camera button, or even to turn off the loud fake shutter sound.