inverso.name - This is my old site. Please vist the new site.

Old Posts Back Online

Mon, 20 Mar 2006 05:39:16 -0600

With the move to the new host and domain (saminverso.com) I also changed blogging software from Drupal to Wordpress. Until I move all the old posts into the new system (if ever) you can still access them here. Commenting is disabled, but feel free to email me.

The old site contains:

My first experiences in Australia
Travel log from my four month backpacking trip through Europe. Starting from Venice and ending in Prague. Itineraries: part one and two.
Random netscrap I found interesting.
And much more!

All new posts will be made to the new site.

Enjoy!,
-Sam

Piled higher and Deeper at ANU

Wed, 07 Dec 2005 19:01:50 -0600

I just accepted a PhD position at the Australian National University! I will be in the Research School of Biological Sciences in the Human Brain Dynamics group for the next three years.

It's a relief to know where I'm living for a time span measured in more than months. And, it's great that I just have to do research, I don’t need take or teach classes, so I can finish in three to four years instead of the five to seven a PhD in the US requires.

Now I just need to figure out, "What is the Thesis?"

Five Hours in Sydney, Australia

Sun, 27 Nov 2005 20:33:24 -0600

I took a three hour bus trip from Canberra to Sydney last Tuesday. The bus ride was nice, passing beside rolling hills, farms, and ravines. While in Sydney I spent three hours in some interesting meetings (at least they were for me), and then two hours walking from the University of Sydney to Cockle Bay and back to the bus station.

Here are some pictures from the walk.

(p.s. After a month in Australia, and a six hour bus trip through the country side, I’ve only seen one kangaroo. I’m starting to think kangaroos are about as real as jackalopes.)

Blue Skies, Big Feet, and Bothersome Flies

Sat, 12 Nov 2005 22:31:22 -0600

Last Wednesday the Canberra sky was perfectly clear and blue. It was like looking up at a matte painting.

I felt like I was on the Truman Show (Inverso Show?), and watched fixated, waiting for a spot light to crash to the ground.

After a bit, I was distracted by this huge footed bird. It was nice enough to pose for me:

There are a few birds in the tree outside my window whose singing at sun-down sounds like seven-year old girls screaming for help. It’s impossible to convey the eeriness of it.

I don’t have a picture, but there’s an annoying black fly that resides around sidewalks. It picks a spot to land on your face -- cheek, upper-lip, eyeball -- and once chosen it will incessantly go back to that spot. No amount of swatting, fuffing, or shaking will dissuade it until you exit its designated span of sidewalk. At which time another of its kind will pick a new facial spot and continue the torment.

Luckily, No sign of the drop bears yet.

First Week in Canberra

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 01:38:06 -0600

I left Newark, NJ on October 30th and after 23 hours of flying, with layovers in Los Angeles and Sydney, I arrived in Canberra, Australia on November 1st. I spent most of the time sleeping, reading, watching movies, and setting my watch backwards an hour whenever we crossed a time zone. I can say the most exciting part of the flight was jumping forward a full day when we crossed the international dateline. Yes, the flight was that uneventful.

By crossing the international dateline I lost an entire day of my life, and not just any day Halloween! In protest, I've moved my birthday forward a day. From now on I'm celebrating on June 21st instead of June 20th. It might sound strange, but on your deathbed how much would you give to have an extra day?

Obliviously I'm still a bit jetlagged, incoherent, and melodramatic, so I'll be brief.

The last week has been great. I'm settling pretty well in my dorm room, with undergrads swarming all around me. The Australian National Universitie's campus is in the city, but still its own segmented area. The campus and city is very green, with 10,000 hectares of grass and trees (New York’s Central Park is 341 hectares).

I arrived the same day as the Melbourne Cup, Australia's version of the Kentucky Derby. The whole campus shutdown to drink beer and watch the horse race. It was a crazy two minutes.

Everyone's been very nice so far. I've got a desk in a room I share with a PhD student, and I've spent the last week reading through papers, and learning the software and equipment they have here. Looks like there are a lot of different potential projects I can do in the next three months.

I’ve posted some pictures of the campus and dorm here. Enjoy!

Remote Controlling Humans

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 20:52:30 -0500

Ok, this isn't a get your tin foil hat post. NTT has developed a headset that sends electrical signals to the inner ear. This tricks the vestibular system into believing you are tilting left or right, and compels you to compensate by moving in that direction.

Here's the journalist's experience:
"A special headset … sent a very low voltage electric current from the back of my ears through my head — either from left to right or right to left, depending on which way the joystick on a remote-control was moved. …I felt a mysterious, irresistible urge to start walking to the right whenever the researcher turned the switch to the right. I was convinced — mistakenly — that this was the only way to maintain my balance."

NTT is interested in using this for video games. Personally, it would be great attached to a GPS and mapping software. I could bury my head in a book and be auto piloted directly to work.

Read the full article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2005/10/25/financial/f133702D73.DTL

iPod Shuffle Armband Review

Tue, 25 Oct 2005 17:13:07 -0500

I’ve been jogging with my iPod Shuffle in the DLO Action Jacket for a month now, and it’s been great!

There are three armbands to choose from for the Shuffle: Apple’s gray plastic armband, the XtremeMac neoprene SportWrap, and the DLO silicone sleeve Action Jacket. All three armbands are comparably priced in the $20 to $30 range. Here’s a summary of some reviews I crawled through before choosing the DLO.

Research Opportunity at ANU

Sun, 23 Oct 2005 21:31:19 -0500

I just received a Summer Research Scholarship in the Research School of Biological Sciences at the Australian National University! The scholarship is for a short-term three month study with Prof. Andrew James researching brain-computer interfaces. I fly out Sunday October 30th for Canberra, Australia. I’m very excited about the opportunity to continue in the BCI field at a great university.

It's a relief to know what I'm doing for a time period greater than an hour. The four months I've been at home have been good: visiting family, playing with my niece, reading books and papers I've had on the back burner, but I was going a bit stir crazy without a car in suburbia. I'm glad to get back to research, and having two summers in a row doesn’t hurt.

Ooroo,

-Sam

Ever asked your self, "What would I look like in Southpark?"

Fri, 21 Oct 2005 21:25:07 -0500

Thanks to Vanessa for this distraction. Now I know how I would look in Southpark:

Hmm...How about as a pirate!

Arrr!

gVisit: Google Map App

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 23:08:25 -0500

I've added gVisit to the site. Click here to see a Google map of where this site's visitors are from. (There's a permanent link to gVist in the navigation sidebar under, you guessed it, Links :) [via Pang]

Given people generally read this site exclusively via RSS feed, the visitors on the map are mostly search engine bots. So come say Hi RSSers! :-)

Bumvertising

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 23:05:32 -0500

Bumvertising: paying roadside beggars a sandwich and 1 to 5 dollars for attaching an advertisement to their cardboard pleas for help [via kottke].

From the The Age:

"So much traffic goes by these sign holders, I thought, 'Wouldn't it be cool if they could advertise themselves and me at the same time?' " A 22-year-old who was an economics major, Mr Rogovy packed his knapsack with cash, a few sandwiches and three professionally printed posters advertising his venture, PokerFaceBook.com.

I had to laugh reading this article, not at the tragedy of exploiting the destitute, but that the guy who started this thinks it’s good marketing to link street beggers with an online poker site. It’s like advertising for cigarettes on tombstones.

Now with less eye piercing orange!

Sat, 08 Oct 2005 00:33:36 -0500

I changed the links to blue; the orange was giving me retinal afterimages. Enjoy!

inver.so: Domain Name Hacks

Thu, 06 Oct 2005 23:56:19 -0500

Create domain names that use top-level-domains like del.icio.us and blo.gs with the Domain Hack Search Utilty from Xona.com [via lifehacker].

I tried 'inverso' and got back:

URL	Domain	TLD	IANA	Wikipedia	Whois
http://inver.so	inver.so	.so	Somalia	.so	[whois]
http://inv.er/so	inv.er	.er	Eritrea	.er	[whois]
http://in.ve/rso	in.ve	.ve	Venezuela	.ve	[whois]
http://x.in/verso	x.in	.in	India	.in	[whois]

inver.so looked promising except .so is Somalia. Unfortunately according to Somalia's registrar
"As Somalia has no internationally recognized government, this domain is not currently used. We simply have parked this top level domain till an official government is implemented." Yikes, stymied.

Springfield Map

Wed, 05 Oct 2005 23:09:32 -0500

This has been around for a while, but for fans who haven’t seen it yet, you can view online or download a highly detailed map of the Simpsons' hometown of Springfield at http://www.mapofspringfield.com Unfortunately it doesn’t work with Google Earth or Maps.

How many hamsters does it take to power a light bulb?

Wed, 05 Oct 2005 23:09:16 -0500

One, his name is Skippy.

"Though Skippy the Hamster powers this night light by running on his exercise wheel, the same concepts and low-rpm alternator design could be applied to a school science project using different energy sources! A small wind or hydro turbine could easily power this alternator. [ Otherpower.com]"