Mike Oren.com

Since my last update, I aquired a brand new MacBook because while I have a perfectly capable desktop computer that's great for everything (and is still my primary computer), I needed something mobile for classes and for travel. I had been wanting a laptop for awhile and had been leaning toward getting a tablet (fairly ideal for jotting down class notes and such), but I had been waiting for my graduation money before buying anything. I ended up going for a MacBook instead of the tablet because I had been wanting OS X for testing cross platform applications, trying out another operating system, and the stability and control that the Unix backend offers--not to mention that the lowend MacBook ended up costing me less than a lowend tablet would have cost me, factoring in a $100 student discount, free 2 GB iPod Nano (it's black--and it's for sale... so if you're interested, let me know), and a free $100 printer (I went with the Canon Pixma iP4200 because my previous printer was a Canon and my experience with that was cheap ink--the most important thing--plus the Pixma has fast print times). I'll have a write up about the MacBook and OS X later on my tech blog, but expect it to take another week or so--for now feel free to read my initial thoughts on Windows Vista that I have up there.

I also just finished up my first full week of duties as a research assistant. During this past week, I managed to fix several bugs in Moosic and build several alternative versions to it (each version represents the position and distance of objects in a slightly different manner through sound). I've also been working on contacting Nintendo to see if we would be able to obtain a developer's kit for the purpose of porting Moosic over to it so that a more natural gaming platform can be utilized (the DS will also be useful when the results of the Moosic study are applied to a sound based mapping system--if we end up going that route). I also sent some e-mails out to Iowa State University staff that are involved in aiding visually impaired individuals on campus in an attempt to get some general statistics about the visually impaired population so I can run some preliminary tests and possibly find a design partner (as designing a system for the visually impaired without constant feedback from a member of that community will lead to an ineffective interface). Then, of course, I also read and found several papers related to sonification and interface for the visually impaired--so all in all, I've been keeping myself fairly busy.

Beyond work, I've also been trying to get involved in Iowa State University's Graduate Student Senate since I would like to continue having some political activity--it puts me in contact with new people, the administration (to avoid red tape), and if I reach the executive board then there are several free parking options... I've also been looking into trying to find a more permanent living situation, and I am currently hoping to get an efficiency at University Towers since their rent is reasonable, their facilities look nice, and they only rent to graduate students and professionals--so it should be quieter and things should be kept in better condition. I still haven't really gotten around to meeting people/making new friends (I spent this past week--outside of doing research--editing a DVD of my sister Katrina's wedding), but I did go out last weekend and see Cars and went to a very good Thai restaurant. Today I just went looking at various apartment complexes and did laundry (yesterday I order Papa John's Pizza and found a neat little Vietnamese restaurant that I need to check out in the future)--oh and I did a few simple excercises (I would've done more, but the equipment at my apartment's complex isn't in the best of shape).

In the (hopefully) near future, I plan on adding my Google calendar to my web site, but since I have yet to do that, just a reminder that I'll be up in Chicago from June 30th (for a concert) until July 4th so if anybody in that area wants to hang with me then, make your appointment now as I'll probably be booked up quickly (by Danielle...)

All of my graduation pictures that are currently in my possession have finally been posted in my photo gallery. I'm still waiting to obtain copies of the photos my older brother took but until then, these are all the pictures I have.

In other news, I have finished my work at LexisNexis Interface Software and have moved down to Ames, Iowa to begin my work as a research assistant and graduate student at Iowa State University in the HCI program. I arrived here Monday, took care of some paper work, unpacked, did some shopping, went to sleep, and then woke up the next morning for my first day of work. In other words, I ended up with no break and hit the ground running. Although I've been fairly busy and haven't really had time to get fully settled and situated, so far I'm enjoying it down here and I'm excited about the work and the classes. I actually just registered for my fall courses today and I'm signed up for an advanced graphics course, a psychology course related to HCI, an HCI weekly seminar, and two course credits of research.

Speaking of research, the professor I'm working with is leaving for a conference in Europe at the end of the week, so my assignment for the next two weeks is to actually work on improving my computer science senior project (Moosic) for the purpose of conducting further user studies and possibly culminating in a research paper assuming we can place a proper academic spin on the topic. If we go forward with this, we hope to work with Terri Bonebright from DePauw University (where I just finished my undergraduate work) and hopefully work with the Iowa Braille School for the purpose of user studies. Needless to say, I am very excited about this and will post updates as they become available.

I'm down to my last week of working at Interface Software and down to about 7 days before I need to move to Iowa. Since the product release was last week for Interface Software, I haven't had as much work to do so leaving there right about now is fairly good timing in terms of not feeling guilty about leaving unfinished work around. It's a fun company with some great people and a CRM suite with plenty of features that is at about the right level of usability (easy things are easy to complete while more complicated things may require training).

As for getting everything done that I need to get done before moving to Iowa, I'm at "about the right place". Since I'm only bringing the minimum amount of items for the summer (as I want to wait until I have a permanent residence before moving everything over there), I don't really need to pack much--I'm just bringing cooking stuff, clothes, sleeping, and computer stuff and pretty much all of that is already packed with the exception of the computer stuff (as I'm still using it). There's still one more paper I want to read before going down there and I never really worked on any OpenGL, but I did review some of my old OpenGL code to refresh my memory as to some of the commands and such--although I'm hoping I'll be able to do a little more of that before I leave. So while I had hoped to get more done, I'm actually at about where I thought I would be at this point considering the fact that I've been working and had graduation and various other activities going on.

As for what I've been doing recently, this week has been fairly low key for the most part although Memorial Day Weekend I went swimming outdoors and got a decent tan to my face/burnt shoulders. I also grilled some shish kabobs and corn outdoors. I did some more grilling Wed. when I grilled some beer brats that turned out AWESOME (much better that I expected since I wasn't sure what I was doing and just sort of winged it). Oh, I also saw both the Da Vinci Code and Over the Hedge that weekend. I think the critics blew it on the Da Vinci Code as I thought it was a fairly good movie, no real complaints (although not a phenomenal movie). Over the Hedge was just an enjoyable movie to watch and you have to love Hammy. Then this past Friday (June 2nd), I walked a 5k as part of the i5k at work and got my excercise for the week... My calves were killing me afterwards, but it was fun. Later that evening, I took Danielle to downtown Chicago for dinner at Rhapsody (food was pretty good--Danielle got the halibut which was great and I got the salmon which was pretty good for salmon, but I've always found salmon to be kind of boring; I had gotten it because Danielle couldn't wanted to try both the salmon and the halibut). After dinner, we went to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) where we saw one of the last conceerts conducted by the conductor of the past thirty years, a flute solo by the principal flutist (the reason we had gone in the first place--since Danielle is a flute player), and the last composition by the CSO's current composer (last composition commissioned specifically for the CSO)--and this was a semi-premiere of the piece (the first time it had been played was the night before). So it was a good concert to go to and we had seats behind the orchestra front row so we had a great view of everything and got to see some things that the performers wouldn't do while facing the audience (like sticking their tongues out to show relief/frustration). So it was an interesting night.

Since work is just about over, expect an update to my resume some time later this week. I'm also considering adding a biography page with general facts about me, since right now I don't have anything like that on here. Any updates to any part of the site though will be announced here.

I almost forgot... some basic stats for the site from the month of May: visitors from 27 countries, over 300 unique visitors (638 visitors overall), 15 people bookmarked the page, and more than that appear to have subscribed to the RSS feed. That blew all previous site records away (including the month where I posted a slashdot article--it didn't link to this site but they include the homepage of summary authors and people followed that link). I am very pleased by those statistics as it shows its worth the time and money (domain registration and hosting) I put into this web site. So thank you to all of my visitors! If there's anything you want me to add to this site or anything you think I can improve, please add a note to the comments below (no registration is required).