bits and bikes

I spotted this clever website today (via), which plots the number of Google results for various spellings of one particular expression. Now I, too, have generated statistics on various spellings of particular words, and have just yesterday posted them online. This includes about 100,000 spellings of about 3,000 English words, collected through the SpellBEE activity, as part of my dissertation work…

[Read more →]

Chris Seibold’s new O’Reilly book, the “Big Book of Apple Hacks,” is now available (from O’Reilly Media or from Amazon.) While I haven’t seen it quite yet, I am familiar with at least one portion of the book: My blog post on User-Initiated Privacy for Web Applications is included.

[Read more →]

After successfully defended my dissertation yesterday, these new socks fit well!

[Read more →]

I’ve been thoroughly occupied writing my dissertation, and will continue to be for the next few weeks. Until I have time to write, I’ll stick to quick-links. Here’s a few…

[Read more →]

I’ve seen several web-based tools for cyclists to keep track of their rides, but rarely see one designed specifically for commuting. A recent post by Noah at Commute by Bike described the spreadsheet that he uses to keep track of his bicycle commuting. … Add a bit of code, and your spreadsheet can email you when it’s time to recharge the batteries in your lights and sound system.

[Read more →]

In a new twist on Human Computation, a team of 10 MIT cyclists pedal-powered an energy-efficient SiCortex SC648 supercomputer for 20 minutes.

[Read more →]

Web-based applications are becoming increasingly popular, offering a variety of compelling advantages over desktop-based applications, both to developers and to users. These applications are platform-independent, accessible from any Internet-connected computer, offer offsite data storage, and often provide integrated tools for collaboration and sharing. One major tradeoff, however, is a loss of privacy. But this doesn’t mean that we need to give up on privacy (or give up on web applications.) We just need to think more creatively…

[Read more →]

Its original purpose was to let me run certain small scripts on my home computer from my very low-tech cell phone. From here, Berry (originally Hackberry) eventually grew a full syntax for requests, a nice GUI, an SDK, a security model, and many new ways to connect. In addition to the original SMS communication channel, six more input channels and nine more output channels were later added (e.g. IM messaging, Skype, Quicksilver.) Talk about feature creep.

[Read more →]

I think you’ll agree that the best driving route from Point A to Point B is not necessarily the best biking route. But when it comes down to characterizing just how good a particular road is for bicycling, things get complicated. … I’m very interested in leveraging technology to make bicycle commuting more approachable, safe, and enjoyable. A (cycle-specific) mapping and routing system affects all three, so it’s definitely on my radar.

[Read more →]

My first cell phone purchase was based on David Pogue’s 2003 recommendation: a Kyocera 2325. And last week, after over 49,000 minutes of talk time, it finally stopped working. … I’d like to hear from people who have made the most of a well-made phone. Have you hit the 50,000 minute mark? 100k minutes? More?

[Read more →]