Stream of Consciousness

bookpornography: Richard Wentworth, False Ceiling

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 18:03:36 -0500

bookpornography:

Richard Wentworth, False Ceiling

theskeletonofme:

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 16:38:31 -0500

theskeletonofme:

black-and-white: Rodney Smith Photography

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 16:36:49 -0500

black-and-white:

Rodney Smith Photography

Erin Bury's random musings: The 8 Startups I Can't Live Without

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 16:08:38 -0500

Erin Bury's random musings: The 8 Startups I Can't Live Without:

erinbury:

When you’re in a bubble it’s hard to remember that there are people outside of it. I forget sometimes that some people don’t spend their days researching new startups, reading startup blogs, and talking to new entrepreneurs. So I’m trying to share my startup discoveries with more people so they…

Charlie Sheen browser blocker makes your internet a Sheen-free zone

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 16:07:48 -0500

Charlie Sheen browser blocker makes your internet a Sheen-free zone

CNN Redesign

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:55:00 -0400

I checked out CNN today and was surprised to find that the site has been redesigned. The UX geek in me took over and I immediately clicked and scrolled through the site to take it all in….do I love it? hate it? prefer it over the previous design?…and have come to the conclusion that I am NOT a fan of the redesign.

Here are some of the reasons why…

Latest News- I am coming to the site to find out about the latest news, and I’m sure millions of others are looking for the same thing because it is a news site (obviously). Instead of featuring the “Latest News” section at the top of the page, it’s found mid-page under featured stories that I may or may not care to look at depending on the subject matter. I have a 13 inch Macbook, which means that I have to scroll to view the full list of “ground breaking news” - LAME. So for all the net book users out there, sucks for you, you don’t get to view latest news above the fold.
Header- Does it really need to take up that much screen real estate? Another interesting observation is that CNN has re-branded themselves by dropping the .com off there logo.

I’m sure that there are a lot of cool/ lovable features of the site that I have yet to explore, since discovering the redesign 15 minutes ago, but those are my initial thoughts, off the cuff.

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Photo of the Day: Walking Art

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 09:52:00 -0400

During my internship in Mountain View, I had the chance to explore norcal by going on a photo walk of the Berkeley area. I captured this shot as while perusing the goods of various street vendors and boutique stores.

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Photo of the day: Good Morning

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:08:51 -0400

I took this photo at my Grandma’s house in Toronto. Like most grandmas, her old house had an eclectic collection of old furniture, outdated electronics and random decoration from decades past. I slept on the futon in the living family room and this is was my view of the front window at the break of each new day. I was mesmerized by the way the light would stream through the curtains. Good Morning.

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Canada!

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:07:00 -0400

I spent the past week in Toronto, Canada for a family vacation. Here are a few highlights from my trip!

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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My Internship

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:45:34 -0400

My 10 week internship at NASA AMES Research Center ended a few weeks ago. The program that I was affiliated with organized tours to show the interns more about the what goes on around the base. Here are some pictures that I took of our learning excursions. We were given tours of various training simulators. Training simulators are designed to provide researchers with an environment where they can study how and why aviation errors occur. Their purpose is to offer researchers a suite of simulation facilities and utilities that can be used to analyze flight crew performance and to develop and improve new simulation and training tools.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Picture of the day: Bubble Lady

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:23:15 -0400

Picture of the day: Bubble Lady

Angry Little Girl Comic

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:10:00 -0400

I saw this comic and thought that it was hilarious, enjoy!

Great Geek Debates: iPhone vs. Blackberry

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:58:25 -0400

This article addresses the great geek debate between smartphone competitors: iPhone vs. Blackberry by breaking down several arguments in regards to…applications, physical attritubutes, gaming, personal/business functionality….and the Chuck Noris factor =P.

iPhone +3, Blackberry +3

Awesome Coldplay video. Super creative. Give it a watch!

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:57:57 -0400

Awesome Coldplay video. Super creative. Give it a watch!

Networking...

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:23:21 -0400

When I think of networking, I have a repulsive imagery of having to elbow my way into meet-n-greets with CEOs or UX Directors of major companies. Visualize with me people…

[Begin scene] Dressed to impress, I am stiff in my black suit that I have only worn twice in my life, once for a job interview and another time for my grandfather funeral service. I am at an industry-related social function and as I enter into the hotel conference room I am immediately overcome with “lunch room anxiety”. Who do I talk to? Where should I stand? Should I join a conversation? Who is who? Is that person a somebody? a nobody? In order to resolve the inner dialogue in my head within the 10 seconds from when I first arrived- I use three survival strategies.

Strategy 1: Sniff out the UX gurus in the room by observing who has the biggest huddle of people surrounding them.

Strategy 2: Quickly glance at the “hello” name tags of people within my personal space to find someone from a network worthy organization. If both strategies fail I will resort to my emergency back-up plan -

Strategy 3: Look busy or preoccupied in order to buy time- bust out the cell phone to check for messages that don’t exist, dig through my purse to look for something special, or wander around the facility to search for the ladies restroom.

Once I have scoped out someone who I want to talk to I awkwardly try to wiggle my way into their ongoing conversation becoming a part of the huddle. In order to not be labeled as the mute one, I engage in the conversation by interjecting unintelligent one-liners to show that I am amiable. And after going to a few of these meet-n-greets during my early career, I’ll develop an annoying fake laugh that I’d use as a defense mechanism to fill the awkward silence of superficial conversation to brown nose my way into limelight prospective job opportunities. [End scene]. It’s absolutely disgusting.

What I have learned is that networking doesn’t have to be so unappealing. Within the past few weeks I have met some great people. I did not meet them interning at NASA per se, or even at a local meet ups for UX professionals. From my experience networking always occurs in the most unlikely situations. It seems to happen by accident through mutual friends, or casual conversation with a complete stranger, or by someone overhearing you go off into a “geek moment” as you mull over the good/bad/ugly of UX design. So the lesson learned is to be yourself. Have your geeky moments. Be open about your interests, talk about them, blog about them and find a great company that appreciates those things about you (says the unemployed graduate student…=P). I understand that we can’t be passive when it comes to networking, but at the same time it doesn’t have to be awkward =P.

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Google Chrome OS

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:08:27 -0400

Click here to READ!

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Dilbert

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:29:00 -0400

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Celebrity Shielding Flashgun Handbag Defeats Paparazzi

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:17:59 -0400

Click to Read

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Great Wall of Facebook: The Social Network's Plan to Dominate the Internet — and Keep Google Out

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:13:37 -0400

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-07/ff_facebookwall

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Norcal

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:56:29 -0400

The best thing about working in the bay area (aka norcal) is being surrounded with a thriving community of like-minded industry professionals. I have had the opportunity to meet a good number of “forward-thinking/gadget-friendly/geeky/fun/cool” people who share my interest in UX research and design. The best part about the community here is that when I tell people about interaction design they are usually familiar with the type of work that we do or think that it’s awesome that such a field of study exists. There are definitely less confused faces and more positive reactions and interest in HCI. This beats having to reduce and oversimplify all that I do professionally to a mere…”I make things user-friendly”. So I am really thankful that I found an internship out here. The people are great, the weather enjoyable and the food variety unbeatable; I think we should all move to norcal =).

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