Oh the joys of choosing a place to live (and research) for four long years …

I’m in the middle of deciding which school I want to attend for my PhD. Sometimes, I wish the schools had made it easy for me by only accepting me at one place, so then the decision would be made for me; but alas, that is not the case. So now I am visiting them to meet faculty, see the location (which, of course, is typically in the middle of nowhere) and try and figure out if I can tolerate the place for at least four years.

Tomorrow I fly to Michigan, and I must admit, I’m a little nervous at the prospect of living in the Midwest for four years. I like a little snow, but I don’t think I’m prepared for the winters they have along the Great Lakes. This (left) is what I think of when I think of the northern parts of the U.S., and in some cases, I may not be too far off. Okay, fine, I’m probably far off everywhere except northern Alaska. But still! I’ve been spoiled by living in the Mid-Atlantic and the South my whole life. I’ve never put chains on my tires. In fact, I try to avoid driving whenever there’s even a chance of snow!

So here’s my dilemma. What criteria do I use to choose a program and how much weight do I give to each factor? Location is important, but so is the strength of the program. Will it help me more to get a job if I go to the ivy league school with the ok program or the ok school with the better-known program? Should I go where the professor I want to work with is regardless of other factors, or should I put my ability to survive in that city first?

This is what I have been thinking about the last few weeks, and probably what I will continue to think about over the next month, as I try to make my final decision while finishing my master’s thesis. So if you have been through this before, I would love to hear your advice/story/etc. Anything to aid me in making this rather important decision.

Twitxr mashes up Twitter and Flickr; Vitak’s head subsequently explodes

I guess you could say I’m still new to this tech-heavy lifestyle I’ve thrown myself into over the last six months as I write my master’s thesis, but the seemingly nonstop, daily influx of new companies with ever-so-slight variations on the original is slowly driving me crazy. I wonder if I would have survived the tech bubble of the 90s, or if, in the end, I would have blown up my computer to get away from the insanity. Luckily, I was a naive little college student back then, without a care in the world past my next keg stand.

Now, however, keeping up on this stuff is part of my job and my education, so there will be no computer explosions in my house anytime soon (that, and my house is really old, so it’d probably burn down in under 30 seconds, which would totally suck). Don’t get me wrong, I’m fascinated with a lot of the new social networking sites launching every few milliseconds, but I have never particularly liked Twitter, and I don’t like posting my pictures for the whole world to see, so I haven’t yet caved to the massive powers of Flickr. So why in the world would I want them combined?

Well, that exacty what Twitxr has done my friends. Here we have one of the newest social networking site (it just launched this week), which is for all intensive purposes Twitter with pictures. Now, you can twit about photos you take on your cell phone, basically allowing people to follow your every last move as it happens — or at least shortly after it happens. Find some funny graffiti in a public bathroom? Send it on over! Amazed at how pretty your fancy, $175 entrée costs and want to show everyone that you’re a real spender? Post it up! Want to show the whole world how lame you are because you feel the need to share every minute of your day? Please, indulge us. We love it!

Ugh, sometimes this social connectivity and identity sharing starts to wear me down. It’s like we’ve all just given up on the hope of keeping any part of our lives private. Hold strong people, hold strong!

Picture of the Day: This is (sadly) my life

Enough said:

[Thanks to the ever-awesome xkcd!]

10 minutes, 2 ideas, 1 man, and a whole lot of political change

With my academic background, I am quite familiar with the writings of Lawrence Lessig, a law professor at Stanford and the author of such books as “Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace,” “The Future of Ideas” and “Free Culture.” He writes about what I’m most interested in: how technology (ie, the Internet) impacts society (in his case, through a legal lens).

So I was quite surprised (and somewhat intrigued) to read the other day that Lessig is considering a run to replace recently deceased Congressman Tom Lantos of California. Lessig may not have much of a political background, but the man is damn smart and has some great ideas about what is wrong with DC. It might be refreshing to have someone like him stirring the pot in Washington.

Lessig has launched a website devoted to his campaign consideration and his “Change Congress” movement. He’s also posted a 10-minute video (seen below) which summarizes his beliefs on the inherent problems of the current system and why he’s considering this run for Congress.

I may need to change professions, now that I know I’m a psychic (at least when it comes to DVD turf wars)

The battle royale is over and the victor has been chosen. Not since the Sony-Betamax showdown have consumer electronics fought so bravely to win dominance over the market. But after months of indecision, we can finally announce our winner: Blu-ray high definition DVDs have vanquished HD DVDs.

And who predicted this? Why, me of course. I think it was the obvious choice as soon as they announced PS3’s would contain a Blu-ray player, but apparently some others out there are not quite as quick at these things. And on top of that, Warner Bros. said in January they would only release their films on Blu-ray. If that wasn’t the final nail in the coffin, I don’t know what else could be.

So what caused this tipping point in favor of Blu-ray? Today, Toshiba revealed they will no longer make HD DVD players, thus effectively handing victory to Sony and Blu-ray. Luckily for me, I am typically not an early adopter for this very reason. At minimum, buying the technology too early can cause headaches when rebates are offered just a few months after the product is released or having to pay for upgrades to the software. At the worst end, you’re stuck with an expensive gadget and a few movies, and you can’t buy anything else. AND, no one will want to buy your now useless piece of electronics. Of course, it isn’t that expensive anymore, with the price of the players plummeting to just over $100 in many cases. Maybe now IS the time to buy one so you can show it off to your friends in 20 years as a collector’s item.

Dear childhood, Why can’t I come stay with you forever?

Have you ever had one of those moments of overwhelming nostalgia? You know, when you smell a favorite food from your childhood, see a cartoon for the first time in 15 years, or read your nephew a book that you had forgotten was one of your favorites as a child?

If not, it’s quite a powerful moment. And I just had one. In fact, my stomach clenched, my eyes almost teared up and I experienced a powerful wave of sadness for the briefest of seconds as I realized I had forgotten an important part of my childhood. It certainly is trivial by adult standards, but I remember it being a very crucial component to me at age 7.

What could have caused this response, you ask? Why it’s no one other than Spot the Dog!

I saw this picture today in one of the blogs I regularly read, and was immediately transported back to my childhood when I owned this exact stuffed animal. I somehow had managed to get a piece of gum stuck in Spot’s fur and was bemoaning the fact that he’d never been 100% clean again (as I tried in vain to pick out all of the offending gum). I remember he always had a little spot on the back of him where a small amount of hardened gum remained.

Now, I’m not the type of person who remembers my childhood with much clarity – in fact, there are whole portions of my adolescent years I’ve tried to block out – so this came as quite a surprise. Spot had been out of my head for years, and suddenly I was assaulted by a specific memory within an instant of seeing that picture. I just wish there were easier ways of harnessing all this data stored deep in the depths of those filing cabinets in our head.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with childhood memories?

New blog post on Pew Internet Project website

I seem to be blogging everywhere but on this site as of late. Well, that’s what happens when you agree to do too much “real” work and don’t have any time left over for “fun” work, like blogging on this site.

Here’s my latest Pew Internet project blog, which came out of a data memo I wrote on the major predictions related to technology in 2008.

New blog post on gnovis: Howard Rheingold’s smart mobs take on the FARC

Check out my latest musings over at gnovis on the recent Facebook-organized protests in Colombia and around the world.

Picture of the day: I think I need to drop out of grad school and start a Nintendo-based baking business

First I found my dream wedding cake (that is if I ever actually got married – ha!). Then I discovered how to make “8-bit cookies” like Tetris boards (see my blog post from last month). And now, well, I only have one word for my latest discovery: W-O-W.

As you may know, I am an avid baker, even going so far as to contemplate a career if I hadn’t decided to sink my life savings into adding a “Dr.” to my name (I mean, really though, who doesn’t want to be called Doctor? And Dr. Vitak has such a fabulous ring to it.).

Well, all these delicious baked good based off Nintendo games I keep finding online could give me that push I need to change careers. Well, not really, but I do want to try to make these cupcakes. It actually wouldn’t be too difficult — more time-consuming than anything else. Maybe in four months or so, when I actually have a minute of free time, I’ll give them a whirl.

[Thanks Boing Boing!]

Picture of the Day: Possibly one of the weirdest mashups ever

So mashups. Usually, this involves taking two complementary items, whether it is software or music, and squishing them together to form a new item. For example, as I mentioned yesterday, Google Maps and Twitter mashed up for Super Tuesday. Pretty cool, eh?

Sometimes, however, mashups can occur between two completely unrelated items. This usually doesn’t work out. Peanut butter and dog food, for example, do not equal a delicious mashup. Here I present you with one of the few examples I have ever come across that successfully mashes two unrelated items so well that the person decided to ink it on his/her respective body FOREVER.

Hello Kitty, meet Darth Vader:

Now the only question that remains is what to call this adorable little death-bringer. Hello Vader? Darth Kitty? Decisions decisions.

Google Maps/Twitter Mashup for Super Tuesday is actually pretty awesome

Everyone knows Google Maps, and I’ve blogged multiple times about Twitter, the insta-status social networking site. Well, these two normally unrelated sites have joined forces for Super Tuesday to let consumers see just what people from around the world are twitting on this most massive of primary/caucus/pick the next US president days. Check out the site here to watch new comments pop up every 10 seconds or so.

NASA must have seen my blog and decided to copy me…dirty bastards

My inner science geek is doing a happy dance, as I just discovered an awesome website hosted by NASA that features a picture of the day (not unlike myself, when I feel so inclined to post my pictures of the day). Anyway, as expected, the site uploads a new celestial image each day, and I must say, some of them are mind-blowing: exploding stars, solar eclipses by other planets, distant galaxies, and the like. When I see pictures like this, I tend to think space is much better looking than Earth (sorry Captain Planet).

Here’s the picture of the day from Saturday, where you can see Venus *and* Jupiter on the horizon at dawn. So awesome.