Considering I never write to this blog, it will be nice to update it with the full CHI low-down. For those who do not know, the Association for Computing and Machinery (ACM) has a Special Interest Group for Computer Human Interaction (SIGCHI). This insanely long-winded name is why the whole endeavor is referred to as ‘CHI’ (both the group and the conference itself). The annual conference was in Florence, Italy this year, and I was a student volunteer (SV).

This is going to be a very long post, so I’ll cut it off here. All of my pictures can now be found on Picasa.

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I put my name on a list (via Facebook, of course) to share an apartment with other SVs. The accommodations were completely worked out by other SVs, which was wonderful. I’ll be sharing an apartment with three other students, two PhD and one Masters, I believe.

That brings me to today, and the reason for my post. I just purchased my plane tickets, which solidifies the journey in my mind. I can now say that it is official. Now, I just have to find a way to get to Florence, find a hotel for my time in Rome after CHI, determine what I want to see, and countless other things.

It’s going to be an incredible experience.

I opened my front door today to get the mail, and there was a package waiting for me. The OLPC website didn’t change to say that they shipped my computer, but evidently, they did. Yay! I have posted the unboxing pictures on Flickr. I’ve only played with it for about an hour, and here are some initial comments:

• It’s very light and small - the touchpad and keyboard are little too small for my hands, but hey, it wasn’t designed for me.
• The plastic on the outside looks like it could really take a beating.
• The battery doesn’t seem to work. It’s fully charged, but when I pull the plug, it dies. It also won’t turn on with out the plug in. Weird.
• I need to find other people with OLPCs to take advantage of the nifty mesh network features.
• The music creation app is very entertaining.
• The SD card slot is under the monitor and VERY hard to get to. Plus, I couldn’t determine how to access the card once inserted.
• The ‘please wait, I’m doing stuff’ icon is a pair of people doing jumping jacks. Funny.
• I can’t wait to see what applications people wind up developing for it.
• It’s picking up wireless networks that my Dell can’t see.
• I plugged in my Microsoft wireless USB mouse, and it worked like a champ.

That’s it for now. My weekend just got full.

I’m writing a paper about ADHD and in my researching travels, I came across some pretty nifty alarm clocks.  I especially like the puzzle clock.  Imagine a piece falling behind the dresser.  That’ll get ya up.

I love Zappos.com. They offer good prices on a wide variety of shoes. They’ve always been very helpful either over the Internet or on the phone. A CS rep once helped me find the best price on the Internet for a pair of shoes that they didn’t carry. This story makes me love them all the more. So, if you have to buy a pair of shoes, may I suggest that you do so via Zappos?

(Via Consumerist)

The power of music never ceases to amaze me. I put on AC/DC (Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap) this evening to commiserate my bad mood. Then Big Balls came on, which reminded me of a story that put a smile on my face.

I remember sitting in my brother Adam’s room as a kid. I must have been nine or ten, and he was in high school. We were listening to the very same album at the time, and Big Balls came on. I believe that I expressed that I liked the song, and Adam asked if I knew what they were talking about. “Of course,” I stated, “playground balls.” Adam left it at that.

I have a love/hate relationship with Dell. I love them because their computers are top notch and their prices are reasonable. Whenever I have to recommend a computer to a friend or family member, it’s always Dell. I hate Dell because of their customer service. It used to be fantastic. Then they offshored their CS and all hell broke loose.

This summer, my father needed a new computer. He uses his computer for work-at-home purposes, so he can’t go a day without it. He had been having computer issues for some time, and it was an old computer anyway. So, it was decided a new computer was in order. I identified a refurbished model on their website (a good way to get a cheap computer). I then called, had the operator reserve the refurbished item, and asked him to ship it next day. He told me that was impossible, since the credit check and paperwork took a couple of business days. Unbelievably, no matter what negotiation methods I used, there was no way for him to ship it overnight. So, my father and I took a trip to Wal-Mart, yes, you right right: Wal-Mart, to purchase a Dell. They had two boxes: a model without keyboard/mouse/monitor, and the same model without said peripherals. It was a great machine for a great price, so my father got a new computer.

But that’s not the point of this post, believe it or not. This summer, I reformatted my computer in the name of starting the school year fresh (it got abused with installs last year). I thought I had reinstalled everything, but evidently, Dell does not make the PowerDVD codec available for general download. I did a chat session with a Dell technician yesterday who informed me that there was no way to download the software and that she’d have to ship one out to me. Fine, just send the software. I expected to get it in a few weeks. When I came home today, there it was on my doorstep. They shipped it DHL next-day. Perhaps Dell is starting to realize that their customer service used to be a competitive advantage that they had lost and are now working on fixing it.