Shrutarshi Basu 

Via Lukas Mathis:

R. Clayton Miller's 10/GUI is probably one of the most dramatic reimaginations of the desktop user interface I've seen in a long time. This concept proposes a multitouch interaction system that does not require a multitouch screen (and thus does not have to deal with all the problems such a screen causes), but instead uses a multitouch area near the keyboard. The proposed graphical user interface makes full use of this multitouch area.

Grad students are too poor to be stupid. I just spent the better part of the last 15 minutes standing outside because of a false positive in the fire alarm system. Technology. It never works. But as a result of this, I got some rather interesting insights into grad school life. Apparently grad students can get cheaper insurance because they do less stupid stuff. That makes total sense to me and the rest of the conversation revolved around how grad students are in general too poor to get their hands on alcohol or hallucinogenics. While the conversation was light hearted, there was some amount of truth to it all. The rest of the discussion was about typical grad student stuff: meetings, advisors, deadlines, the usual. As I move closer to starting my own graduate experience, all these stories give me some serious food for thought. I would love the cheap insurance and the freedom, but I’m still not 100% sure if I could do it for 5 years.

American public transport is rather inadequate, especially when it comes to mid-range intercity transport. And I think it’s worse if you’re not near a large city. I’m currently stuck trying to get a ride back from Philadelphia Airport to Easton, PA. The last Greyhound bus leaves at 4pm and my flight doesn’t get in until about 5:10. I suppose I could take a cab or something, but that would be expensive. A friend of mine who usually gives me rides is unavailable so now I’m not sure how I’m going to get back. Why is there no bus service for later in the evening?

Left my umbrella behind. Again. At some point over the weekend I realized that I’d left my umbrella at the office. I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal because the weekend was bright and sunny, a bit on the hot side actually. Today morning turned out to be dreary and wet. I didn’t realize it was actually raining till I was out of the elevator with just 5 minutes left before the hourly bus left. I managed to run upstairs, grab my jacket, get out of the building on the wrong side, go back through the building to the right side and then run through the rain to grab the bus. Not a very fun start to the day, but at least I made it to the office without being too wet and not too late.