Monday, June 25, 2007

UbiFit in Press

I know Intel Research Seattle has been fairy reluctant in giving open public demos of their work of the UbiFit project, but here's a recent write-up in news. Note that UbiFit is built on top of the MyExperience tool, a project that I started and worked on while at Intel Research. MyExperience is now open sourced under the BSD at http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/myexperience.

Gnarls Barkley Crazy

Wow, this is just awesome musicianship. I used a Theremin at UCI--Crista Lopes has one in her office. It's not easy to produce such sound (it requires, like all instruments, practice and skill).

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Walker Week 2007 - Nature Photos

Sunrise over Whitefish lake


A Great Blue Heron perched on a tree

Sunrise over Clamshell lake

Sunset over Whitefish on a calm summer evening

Purple wildflower from my kayak trip

This photo and the next few contain pictures of Monarch caterpillars


Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Mobile Phone Growth Figures

I created these figures for my MobiSys 2007 talk but didn't end up using them. I thought I would post them here instead--they demonstrate the incredible shift from static computing (e.g., desktop computing) to truly mobile computing (e.g., smartphones). Oh, and yes, I noticed that 51.47% is a bit exaggerated in the pie graph--it looks more like 55% there. That was, perhaps, an unconscious bias manifesting itself. I don't have the energy (nor the reason) to fix it though. :-P


World Population Numbers:
- CIA World Factbook
- US Census World Population
- Wikipedia

Mobile Phone Users:
- Mobile phone usage doubles since 2000 (2004)
- Global mobile phone subscription to hit 3.5bn (2006)

PC Users
- A billion PC users on the way (2004)
- Worldwide PC Market To Double by 2010, Forrester Says (2004)

Monday, June 04, 2007

The Art Of Lecture

The main teaching vehicle of the university professor is the lecture, a performance that is agony for some and a delight for others, particularly hams. I belong to the latter category. A dull fifty-minute lecture can be an affliction for audience and lecturer alike, as I well knew from having sat through, and delivered, many. On my off days, I have looked out at my hapless victims--sitting in a halo of numb boredom, slack-jawed and staring, fighting to stay awake--and I despised myself for inflicting this on fellow humans.
- Robert F. Murphy, The Body Silent.

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Friday, June 01, 2007

T-Mobile and Puerto Rico

Just spoke with a T-Mobile representative about calling rates to Puerto Rico from stateside US and calling out from Puerto Rico. I was told that both Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands are included in the T-Mobile National Rate plans. This means that I can call Puerto Rico (787) for no additional charge and use my phone when I am there for no additional charge. This includes both voice and data.