so, i got two big monkeys off my back. i finished a half-hour presentation on intellectual property this morning, and gave it this afternoon (turned out very well, i forgot how fun public speaking can be). also, i’m pretty much done with this kiosk (soon to be adapted to a site) for an art exhibit going on campus right now called lost & found, which shows antique (original) and contemporary pieces made from early photographic processes.

some interesting notes: on a hand-count, none of the students in my fine arts senior seminar class raised their hand when asked if they knew what intellectual property was… but the cool thing was that i was able to give my spiel to a clean slate so to speak. i talked a fair bit about the shift in copyright laws (quid pro quo -> incentive -> control model), and about the dmca… also interesting about the lost & found exhibit… there are a set of dagguereotypes “by” chuck close. this is chuck close, hyper realist chuck close.

i’m going to take a nice long nap now.

Gates defends PC at Comdex, unveils new tablet – there’s a video that shows the tablet pc in action. it’s pretty neat… it will be crusoe powered.

that whole /. thread spins off a whole buncha interesting tangents. one is about the naturality of pen input (hmm, intuitive vs familiar probably comes into play). also, there’s a point that the tabletpc uses the pen not because it’s more natural, but because it’s more convenient. “You can write a lot of stuff with one hand — one hand holding the tablet, and one hand holding the pen, while walking around.” – that’s the main reason for the success of pen input and the pda imo.

ibm’s almaden research center is working on a project called blueeyes that observes and responds to a user’s facial expressions, eye movements and vocal cues… pretty neat.

4 easy steps for domestic domination

my roommates were watching the oscars on tv (happening 1 block away – the irony), and gladiator just won best film. so wrong. hmm… i took a few photos today. got one of the hovering helicopters and a closeup of one of the police bikes. check out the shotgun strapped to that baby.

stupid loud helicopters

for crowd control i'm assuming