kurt

ilovebees

ilovebees
the blog
the wiki community

willing suspension of disbelief... although this is clearly a marketing exercise, like the beast, the process of collaborative problem solving online is strangely addictive, the community that forms around such "mysteries" functions like a distributed computer network, dividing up the tasks into human-sized chunks.

Res

Xeni at the Egyptian

I really want a new phone...

A780
or
RAVR V3

Where is my GPS cameraphone? Motorola? I'm talking to you. Put some pressure on them Nextel, are you willing to accept this as the best GPS phone you can offer? At least slap a VGA camera in there, something to tide the location-aware mobloggers over...

Smart Projectors

Link.

Intern Talk Tomorrow

Finished slides and videos for my intern talk, a summer tradition here at the labs, ran through them twice in the room, checked projection, and refined my speaker's notes. Found out that Patrick Scaglia, who oversees 1/3rd of HP labs worldwide, will be attending. I've met him and I feel very comfortable having him in the audience, not an intimidating or threatening man.

Seems like Jim (Rowson, my boss) will allow me to give the same presentation down in LA, no NDAs required, so I can show everyone what I've been up to for the last 3 months. Keeping IP protected is serious business around here, especially before patents have been discussed, but the researchers and managers have always seemed very keen on sharing. Reminds me of the way that Stephen Levy wrote about the proto-geeks in Hackers, they didn't care where you were from, the only allegiance was to the process of discovery. I know that I am still inexperienced in this industry, but visiting MSR and working here have given me an invaluable look into this environment. Projects look out over a vast range of future technologies, some further out than others, but always with questions like: what is the business model? and more recently: what is the consumer experience? The lab itself is old, but the ideas and the people are montage of establishment to radical, trusted to trendy and content to hype.

The best thing I can say right now is that the experience has changed me. The worst thing I can say right now is that the experience has changed me. Whatever I do when I get back to LA, it will be something about which I am passionate and it will be something that I believe will be fun. Most of my friends here are committed to enjoying their lives and their work. If you visit, don't be overwhelmed by the gray cubes and the fluorescent lights, there are some great minds and personalities within, brilliant yet not vain, and culturally literate beyond your expectations.

Walking in VR

Shifty

Countdown

Finishing up my term here at HP, this is my last week, I drive back down to LA on Saturday. On Friday, I submit my final paper, laying it all out in extraordinary detail. On Thursday, I give my intern talk, summing up the work I've done in the last three months. On Wednesday, I furiously polish up all the c content. On Tuesday, I go to lunch with my boss, getting my first ride in his convertible Porsche. On Monday (today), I complete the slide set, trying to compress 90 days into 30 minutes.

Postmortem to come.

See you soon.

Thanks

Thanks Marientina.