HCI + student projects + Germans=

The Smart Beermat

The "smart" beer mat, created by Matthias Hahnen and Robert Doerr from Saarland University in Saarbruecken, southwest Germany, can sense when a glass is nearly empty, sending an alert to a central computer behind the bar so waiters know there are thirsty customers.

I only hope that our undergrads can achieve the same level of ingenuity.

Smarter than me

My new friend: Google Scholar

Smarter than you

Did you know that Orcas have the largest brain to body mass ratio of any animal? That's right folks, bigger than humans. They used to think that humans had the largest brain to body mass ratio which is what made us so darn smart. But nope, now they have determined it's Orcas.

They are also more bad ass than you. You can watch a graphic video of an Orca eating a Great White Shark here.

Friday Harbor

$299.74

That's the cost of the books for my classes this fall. Just two classes, a crap load of money.

Loud things

I have two favorite new albums that I'm listening to obsessively. I've been coding a clients' big old website like a dog, so having lots of good music helps pass the time and prevents my brain from melting.

The first is the debut E.P. from the Silversun Pickups. It's as if the Pixies, Modest Mouse, and Low had a love child. A screaming love child that can't be comforted.

The other one is not quite new, but kinda new. It's 50 foot wave. Kristen Hersh (of Throwning Muses) is rocking it much harder this time around and it sounds amazing. I only wish I could see her show in Olympia tonight.

Sugarfarm and Gravel Road

Get your dancing shoes on. Thursday, Sept 15 at the Blue Moon in the U District - it's Sugarfarm and Gravel Road. If you like Delta Blues with a splash of punk, be there. They totally rock.

Cheney gets the F-bomb

It seems like poetic justice that our next to nearly invisible Vice President, the big fan of throwing out the expletives, gets cursed out on TV.

He's doing a photo op of telling how hard the federal government is working on the Katrina aftermath and a passerby kindly tells him to Go F*ck himself.

Video here (Quicktime) via Crooks and Liars. And if it's safe enough for the senate floor, or for CNN, then it's safe enough for work.

Over at Slog they had a contest to caption Cheney's tour of the disaster. My fav is #2:

Sending Dick Cheney to soothe the hurt of New Orleans is like ...going to the Wildrose for a blowjob.

Cute Logan

From the Labor Day camping trip.

The Blues have the blues

Just heard the very sad news that blues ledgend RL Burnside passed away this morning.

That's what I'm talking about. We got to try to keep it going. Don't want it to end right now. There's a lot of young people going back to the blues once they found out that the blues is the roots of all the music. It took 'em a long time to find out where the music started from. But once they found that out its good now. - from "One Bad Ass Bluesman"

Sad to see you go.