Mike Oren.com

I had to renew my hosting contract this month, which means MikeOren.com is another year older (I forget if it's 3 or 4 years old...) To celebrate, I am taking some time out to write another post *throws confetti*. Perhaps my time would be better spent updating the other pages of the site (almost all of which require updating--although I did upload a new PDF of my resume; the HTML version is still as outdated as ever), but I have other priorities (such as a journal paper I'm working on submitting, and my thesis that I should eventually finish). I did take some time and upload a copy of my H3D/haptics project to YouTube (the video was created and edited by Adam Faeth, another graduate researcher on the project--and the same person who created the Wiicussion video):





That video was created for an IEEE VR '08 sketch paper that we wrote (and was accepted). I won't be attending the conference as it is two weeks before I defend my thesis and as I'm sure I'll need to be working on my presentation slides at that point, but anyway, I thought some of you might find the video interesting.

Things have gotten better with Danielle and myself recently, hopefully they stay that way this time... I should be seeing her next weekend when I go back for an aptly timed visit, which will also include celebrating my grandmother's birthday (besides celebrating Valentine's Day with Danielle--albeit a day or two late).

Aside from my thesis (and the previously mentioned journal paper), I've been having fun doing in-class evaluations of the iPhone and working with the graphic designer on prototypes for a new "India and China friendly" iPhone interface--we're also hoping to take greater advantage of the touch capabilities of the iPhone. The formal study should be taking place sometime in March. I know one of my partners on the project is hoping we can get a conference paper out of this, but I will wait and see how everything goes before I even consider that. Besides the aforementioned journal article, I am also about to begin work on an ASSETS '08 conference paper with the spatial mapping data of my audio game (that's about the only part of my audio game that I haven't written about yet, and an interesting although very time consuming portion of it).

Also, having done taxes last weekend and placing an order for a Tivo HD with lifetime subscription this week... I realize that Danielle is completely right in regards to me spending too much on electronics as all of my money that isn't going towards paying bills/esssentials (or taking Danielle out for dinner, movies, etc. when I'm able to see her) is going towards electronics and I'm spending far too much on them. So, I think, with the exception of "must have" games (like Super Smash Bros. for Wii), that it is high time I lock my credit cards up in my safe deposit box (again) and stop buying things. I should note that none of the non-game electronics I've bought in the past year or two have been on a random whim--they've all been things I had been wanting for at least a year and bought them either due to wanting to reward myself (e.g. HDTV when I got the Google internship) and/or due to finding good deals (Tivo doesn't offer lifetime subscriptions anymore other than on rare occasions, and I don't like monthly fees). Still, a lot of these things I could have (and probably should have waited on). Games are another story (and another problem) though, as I am now up to 22 Wii games and over 30 virtual console games (I also have 4 Wii remotes and 4 nunchuks for it). Not all (probably half or less--it includes Wii Sports, Wii Play, Link's Crossbow Adventure, Endless Ocean, and several other smaller titles) of those games were $50, but that's still a lot of money I sunk into the system. Part of me can't help it though as it's been awhile since I've had a system I've been this excited about and a lot of these games redefine their genres or introduce interesting control schemes and that excites me as a long time gamer... Of course I don't have time to beat the majority of these games... but then even when I was younger, I rarely beat the games I had. For me, it isn't about "winning" the game, it is about the experience and a diversion. So slowing down the games thing might be slightly harder for me, but my hope is that if I have my credit cards locked away and delete my saved credit card information off of Amazon that my temptation will be that much less (as it will require considerably more work to buy things that I don't need).

Update: So I forgot that my site registration and hosting no longer match... I made this post with the knowledge that I was paying to renew my hosting agreement. My site actually only turned a half year older (it is 2 and a half). Not that anybody is actually paying attention ;)

I managed to get a first draft of chapters 1-3 of my thesis out to my program of study (POS) committee this weekend--meeting my deadline for the most part (I had given myself an end of January deadline for chapter 1, but that was delayed by 3 days as I focused on editing a journal paper). Sunday i did attend a Super Bowl party to see the last minute upset victory by the New York Giants (I think CareerBuilder.com had the best ad campaign for the second year in a row). Having received all of my W2s, I also went ahead and filed taxes this weekend--I finally broke the poverty line (and I'm on the low end of the national average income--not bad on grad student salary... although more than half of that was from my internship this summer).

Speaking of money/jobs, I've slowed down/stopped my job hunt for now as I work on finishing my thesis and concentrate on one particular opportunity that (to me) would be cooler than Google if I get it. I won't say which company it is, but I will say that the position is a game designer. It's totally my childhood dream job and even just going through the interview process is exciting to me. If I don't get that then I think my preference is staying for a PhD if the professor i want to work with still needs a research assistant.

On a final note... Today is Super Tuesday in the US and if you live in one of the many states holding primaries today--go VOTE (your vote actually counts in the primary this year and we've been seeing record turnouts in all states, so go make your choice for your party nominee be heard--both sides have a candidate that I would be happy voting for in the November election). With that, I leave you with the following video: