killbam.net

Hilariously, the past couple of weeks have taken my previous posts and turned them on their heads.

First off, one of my professors was uncomfortable with being video taped and decided after the fact that he didn’t like it.  And even though the second professor was okay with it, the first’s status as Supreme Badass of the Program cancelled my hopes of launching the MSIT program into the 20th century.  My only consolation for hundreds of dollars spent on equipment and dozens of hours spent on video hosting and editing is that there’s now a conversation happening about video recording.

I also did not get Donald Norman as my advisor for my independent study.  That’s a bummer.  Although the chap I’ve been recommended, Alan Wolff, is doing some pretty interesting research in HCI and I think things will be just fine.

On a related note, this quarter has been pretty brutal so far.  I’m blitzing my homework all day Sunday, and Monday night, so that I can do movie nights on Tuesday, meet with the group on Wednesday, and fix up and submit things on Thursday.  Friday nights are quite alone time when I stare out the window at all the other kids playing while I try to go to sleep early.

I hate it when applying to colleges and jobs that people offer encouragements like, “What’s the worst that can happen?” and “You have nothing to lose,” making the assumption that the entry fee (or ante, or tryout fee) is zero.

The entry fee is not zero! Okay yes, you have to spend a little bit of money to apply for colleges and some time crafting an essay or resume, but I think the real cost is the one you pay with your emotions. You’re putting your heart on the line, willing to be judge, hoping that you won’t be told “No, you are not good enough.” Just because it’s hard to measure the damage to your self-esteem doesn’t mean that it’s not signifcant or important.

I recently started a long process for an independent study for my MSIT program. I’ll be opting out of the Database Mining (a solid resume building but personally uninteresting) class in order to pursue my own studies. My own studies in this case, will focus on human computer interaction, a mix of design, cognative psychology, and engineering.

Where I put my heart on the line is that I’ve asked Don Norman to be my advisor. He literally wrote the book on human computer interaction. Having Dr. Norman be your advisor for HCI would be like having Michael Phelps as your swim coach.

Unfortunately it turns out he’ll be retiring from Northwestern at the end of this academic year, which I imagine means he’s very busy not taking on the extra work of advising some dude who isn’t even in one of his programs. He also travels to University of California at San Diego often, and something tells me that he’s not spending much of the winter season in Chicagoland.

So I’m very anxious to hear back, which should happen this week. I might be playing the lottery here, and it’s going to suck if things don’t work out, but at least it won’t suck as much as the enevitible guilt of not trying.  Which is what the advice for job seekers and college applicants should be — “Don’t be a bitch.”

Here’s two subscriptions I’ve picked up recently:  

Vimeo – $60 a year for extra features, and the ability to upload up to 5GB of video a week. Vimeo > than youtube because there’s no cap on file size or length, whereas with youtube you’re limited to something like 1GB or 10 minutes, whichever comes frist.  I decided to go with this to suppliment my Kodak Zi8, as I plan to upload my class lectures here.  

Another guy in the class and I both had the idea at the same time, but this is the first time my two current professors have been recorded.  As IT Gurus, I could see their minds racing when I asked if I could put the files online.  One said it was okay, the other is thinking about it because he wants to write a book from his slides.  

One of the interesting things about the program is that it’s not really focused on using technology.  None of our classrooms are “smart” and they don’t demo or really talk about this program or that program.  It’s kind of a mishmash as the students are left to their own devices to solve problems and understand things the way they want.  About half the class doesn’t bring a laptop, and I’ll bet of the half that do, they don’t use it to take notes.  Maybe after working with technology all week, everyone is just like “Fuck that.”  

LogMeIn Pro^2 (squared?) – $12 a month for some cool dashboard features, FTP style transfer and music streaming.

I find myself not wanting to deal with multiple locations and desktops while I’m studying at Wai’s place, so I’ve decided to kind of use her barely capable computer as a thin client to my home computer.  

It’s actually not too bad, although I still do word processing and Excel on her computer.  The music streaming is pretty cool though, and after about 10 seconds of shaky buffering it’s solid.  In the future when she gets some kickass speakers, I look forward to streaming my music to her place while I’m there.