Orchid Ink

9:40pm: Critter
I noticed that there was a mouse in the trap this morning. After giving Anda a good scare we set him/her free a good distance away from Siebel Center.

9:39pm: Business Cards
At our demo planning meeting today we discussed how we are going to
present a professional appearance at the SC open house. As step in
that direction Brian is suggesting that we acquire or make business
cards with our name and affiliation (ORCHID/CS/UIUC). Mark has
volunteered to make a nice template with our group and campus logos.
We'll probably put in an order together for all those interested at a
place like Kinkos. If you are interested in getting in on this please
let Mark and I know ASAP so that we can get the request out. This
won't be in time for CHI, but we can use them at GI and at all future
conferences.

We'll set a deadline, say Saturday by noon for all those interested to
respond.

8:02pm: Post mortem on papers
I would like each person who wrote a paper to discuss the experience with the group. Just take ten minutes and state what you learned about how to write a research paper and what you would do differently next time. No powerpoint slides, just discussion. Also, everyone should skim the papers and look at the structure of the papers and how they correlate. Match the structure to the meeting where I outlined “how to write a CHI paper” and look at the similarities. Spend about 30 minutes on this.

7:15pm: New Server
We have a very nice server machine and flat panel monitor sitting in a box in the lab. I need someone to take initiative and set this up for the group. I would prefer that a systems-knowledgeable Master’s student do this. The machine can be setup in the lab or in my office (with remote access from other machines). I want to move the web server to the server machine and I want to use it as a file server. Using a shared directory was very nice when we were writing papers. We can also use it as a media server. Please contact me to get started and if need be, I will give you access to my office to setup. I know the lab is getting full and it may need to be setup here. At the meeting, please discuss issues or wish lists related to the server/file structure and decide who is going to do it. Spend 15 minutes or so on this. That person should send me an email after the meeting.

8:13pm: Papers
Three students from the group now have their first papers out. Congrats to Mark, Jacob, and Piotr. Other students need to follow their lead and get to the point where papers can be written. I am willing to make significant contributions to the writing effort, but you need to get to the point where a paper can be written. If you are not close to that point, you are falling way behind in the group and this will have consequences. As a student, you are evaluated almost entirely on your research, which means publications. This should inspire you to get busy.

8:12pm: Laptops and PDAs
We received four of each. Preference goes to the doctoral students and then to the Master’s students. The purpose of the equipment is to support research-related activities, but I am fine with students using them for class presentations, etc. My understanding is that the laptops do not have MS Office installed and the systems folks are not doing any installs until after the SC move (and who knows when that is really going to happen). So if someone has a copy…… I have allocated two of the laptops to Hyung and Jacob to support their research needs. That means there are two left. If you feel that you have an immediate need for a laptop, send me an email. You will still be expected to share the equipment as the needs change. These will be nice when you give talks at conferences.

8:04pm: Video camera and related equipment
I am ready to buy a nice video camera and tripod for the group. I need recommendations on what to buy. The purpose of the camera is to video record usability studies. We also need something that would do media conversion. That is, to convert from the miniDV tapes to a digital format. I think we should use the server machine as a media conversion machine as well. Any recommendations on software/hardware to make this happen, please email me and I will get it ordered.

9:40pm: Meeting
We have a meeting tomorrow, 4-5pm. Prof. Michael Twidale is going to attend and will describe some of the work he is doing. Should be very interesting and should give you a better feel for other HCI projects that people are working on here.

For tomorrow, I want each of you to think about these questions:

What has driven people to purchase computing technology in the past? How have those motivations changed over time? Most importantly, what will be the next motivation that drives people to purchase computing technology? What do you think?

9:40pm: New Website
The new ORCHID site is up and running http://orchid.cs.uiuc.edu

I am hosting the site on my machine. I edited the content over the weekend. If any of you would like to further edit the content in the future, you may do so by accessing the shared web directory. To access the directory, go to My Computer, My Network Places, Add a network place, type in \\cs-sumatra\ORCHID. You should then have full control over the web files. If you do not have an Active Directory entry on campus, then you cannot access the shared directory.