~harraton.com~

I'm still alive

2008-07-23T09:04:00.002-04:00

I never blog, but now I twitter! I'm harraton.

Stuff this year:
February: Melvin Traylor Jr. (aka Grandfather) passed away. Wikipedia link.
March: I went to Mexico and brought back 13 lbs of mole.
I proposed my thesis work (and passed).
April: CMU GSA Wine Tasting.
May: Starting my final online shopping study.
June: Went to Cambridge, UK to visit a very pregnant Caille.
Visited Dublin for Cliona and Sinan's wedding.
July: Finished user study.

Participate in my Research

2007-12-13T11:45:00.000-05:00

Participants Wanted! Test our privacy enhanced search engine!
Win Amazon.com gift certificates!

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of privacy information in Web
search engine results. In the course of this study, you will be asked to use the
Privacy Finder search engine to conduct information queries of the Internet.

Prizes!

For every day that you use Privacy Finder, you will receive a raffle
ticket. We will raffle off the following items to our study
participants.

* Weekly raffle prizes - 5 x $20 Amazon.com Gift Certificates per week
* Grand Prize prize - $200 Amazon.com Gift Certificate

To enroll, go here!

http://www.privacyfinder.org/study/index.html

Bill Chapin's Blog!

2007-12-04T01:10:00.000-05:00

As you may now, Bill Chapin (of Juxtaposers fame) has a new gig in Jackson, MI as their entertainment writer. Here's his blog!

Hot Glass II Redux

2007-11-29T22:47:00.000-05:00

I had a great time in Hot Glass II. I think my skills have definitely improved throughout the course. Check out my photo gallery! The pictures shown are in chronological order (i.e. as I progressed in class.) Photo credits go to Mike Murphy.

Big A** Cereal Bowl

2007-11-16T10:39:00.000-05:00

I just finished taking Hot Glass II this week at the Pittsburgh Glass Center. CMU allows you to register for the class through the university, and they'll pick up half the cost. I've been very happy with how my pieces have been turning out this class. I've gotten a lot better compared to what I was turning out in Hot Glass I. (I also had a great partner.)

I was commissioned to make a big a** cereal bowl for a friend. Here it is below. It is the biggest thing I have ever made, with 3 gathers of glass. I had to have someone turn the pipe for me on the bench and another person protect my arm while I was putting in the jack line. It's not perfect, and the sidewalls are super thick, but I like it anyway. It fits a lot of cereal, which was the goal. Yay!

Pittsburgh Traffic Court

2007-11-05T15:43:00.000-05:00

In August, I was shopping in the Strip district, and received a ticket for parking on the sidewalk (my back wheel was slightly over the curb line; the curb line was flush with the street). Since this was a ~$100 ticket, I decided to fight it in traffic court. Here are my observations.

Time to trial: 3 months

Transportation and Parking:
My recommendation - take the bus. You will not find street parking downtown, and will need to park in the parking structure next to the courthouse.

Preliminaries:
Go to the 2nd floor and check in. They book about 50 people for each time slot (or so it seems), so unless you check in, no one will pull your file to be presented for the judge.

Before you walk into the courtroom, you should do the following:

Turn off your cell phone.
Take off your hat.
Find a seat.

You will be tempted to try to stand in the back because the room looks very full. If you do this, the judge will stop everything and ask you to find a seat.

The Courtroom:
The courtroom looks very much like a waiting area for the DMV. There are rows of seats, and the room will be filled with people. The front of the courtroom is wood panel, and that is where the judge and his police-attired assistant site. There was also a bailiff to keep things in line.

Your trial will be very much like a private conversation with the judge. You wait for your name to be called, and you approach the bench and plead your case. Everyone else is sitting in the chairs behind you. If you speak loudly, everyone else can hear you, but if you speak softly, only the judge will be able to hear what you are saying.

The Outcome:
Based on my 2 hours waiting in traffic court, here are my estimations of the possible outcomes of going to traffic court.

Expired Registration or Emissions Stickers

99% chance of dismissal (must have documentation of renewal of registration, etc.)

Moving Violation (Speeding Ticket)

89% chance of waiving of points, must pay full fee
10% chance of waiving of points, may have speeding level dropped to a lesser level, resulting in a slightly smaller fine.

Parking Ticket (sidewalk, hydrant, no parking zone)

80% chance that the fine will be reduced by $20 or $30

I've heard that if you have parked in a Handicap spot, or were speeding in a school zone, your chances of having your fees reduced will be lower.

For people with multiple violations at one time (speeding, expired registration, no seat belt, changing lanes in the tunnel), the chances are slim that you will get all of your violations dismissed.

In general:
The judge is not there to evaluate the "buts" of your situation, or the silliness of your ticket. He/She is there to evaluate if you broke the law. It doesn't matter if you were speeding because you were late to work, or couldn't get you registration renewed because you were out of town. Even if the light was yellow when you were in the intersection, the judge is not going to dismiss your ticket.

If you want your ticket dismissed, you need to come prepared with the law. What statutes did you violate? What does the law say, exactly? Did you violate the law? If you did not violate the law, make your argument. Bring props. The judge liked papers and pictures and other random documentation.

Pay for Privacy

2007-06-07T08:26:00.000-04:00

My qualifier research examined whether making privacy information more prominent would sway people to purchase from websites that do a better job of protecting their privacy. We found that making this information available at the search engine interface did indeed lead our participants to pay a premium for privacy. The paper is available here (pdf). I'll be presenting this research at the Workshop on the Economics of Information Security (WEIS).

Subsequently, Carnegie Mellon issued a press release about my research available here.

Then, it was picked up on Slashdot, and also the BBC. So exciting!

RSS

2007-06-05T20:46:00.001-04:00

I know I don't update that frequently (if ever), so it took me a while to realize that my RSS feed was broken. (I know when I update!) Here's the new link.

Are You My Mother?

2007-06-05T20:27:00.000-04:00

My friend Mike posted this design up on Threadless to be made into a t-shirt. Submit your favorable vote now!

Are You My Mother?

It's been a while

2007-05-31T11:38:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted for a long, long time. I have some posts I've had in my head for a while. The biggest news is that Rich is moving up to Pittsburgh in August. He's accepted a post-doc position in the Math department here at CMU. I'm moving out of the Yellow House (very sad) into another apartment 5 doors down.

Things I want to eventually post about:
SXSW 2007
Breadmaking @ Enrico's Biscotti
Glass Blowing
Arcade Fire in DC/DC Trip

Passed!

2007-02-19T13:59:00.000-05:00

It's been a while. I've since passed my qualifiers!

The Part B problem for 2007:
Global warming is melting the Greenland ice cap which will cause Miami, FL, to flood. What do you do? The engineering component this year was based on building dikes in and around Miami.

To celebrate, we had a Miami (ad)Vice themed Post-Quals party. I catered the event. The menu included corn risotto, grilled beef tenderloin with "fire and spice," a black bean salsa/salad, and 7 key lime pies. All recipes (except for the pie) were taken from Miami Spice: The New Florida Cuisine. A good time was had by all.

Pictures!

Quals

2006-12-26T22:08:00.000-05:00

Where have I been? Here in Pittsburgh, mostly. I have my qualifier coming up soon. The EPP quals have 2 parts, a Part A and a Part B. For the Part A, the research paper is due on Jan. 5th. The Part B will take place on Jan. 9 - 15. It's a week-long test. Last year's problem was "There is an asteroid that will hit South America, what do you do?" They want to see how you structure unstructured problems.

Needless to say, it's been the busiest semester of my life ever. I'll do a year end re-cap sometime.

Happy New Year!

Today's the Day!

2006-11-07T11:52:00.000-05:00

iPod Nano for you?

2006-09-15T14:13:00.000-04:00

Take the survey!

Are you over 18?
Do you use the Internet?
Have you made at least one purchase online in the last year?

If you answered "Yes!" to all three questions, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University would like to know more about the concerns you have when you are on the Internet.

Interested in helping? It's simple.
Go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=976072573640 and fill out the survey before 10 pm ET on September 22, 2006.

The survey should take about 15 minutes. We will ask you to answer questions about the likelihood of things happening online and how much trouble those things would cause you.

In exchange for completing the survey, you will be entered into a raffle for an Apple 2 GB iPod Nano.

Your survey responses will be used solely for research purposes. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at onlineprivacyconcerns@gmail.com

Home Construction in Haiku

2006-09-04T19:27:00.000-04:00

Load-bearing wall down
Kitchen, dining room are one
House is still standing

Summer's Over

2006-08-26T21:14:00.000-04:00

How quickly the time passes. This week we had Camp EPP, or orientation for the new first years. I was in charge, and it took a lot of time to plan and execute, but it was a great time. I also prepared way too much food, but I think it was a good way to bond with the new first years. My contribution to EPP Orientation this year was the Progressive dinner. Each class of upperclassmen hosted a course (3rd years - appetizers, 2nd years - mains, and 4th + years - dessert) and the first years moved from course to course to end at a bar crawl on the South Side. I think it was an excellent way for all of them to meet members of the other classes and get to know each other. Hooray! Now, I can sleep again!

Class starts on Tuesday. Qualifiers are in 4 months. It's going to be crazy.

Pop Candy

2006-08-11T15:13:00.000-04:00

Here's the USA Music blog, Pop Candy, about Lollapalooza. It has a great summary of how the show was.

My highlights:
Working my way into the front row for Stars.
Waiting all day to secure my position in the front row for Wilco.

Seeing these groups live make me appreciate their music more:
Sleater-Kinney, Death Cab for Cutie, Nada Surf, Feist, The New Pornographers, Nickel Creek, and Broken Social Scene

Best Production: The Flaming Lips

Who I missed: Andrew Bird (I was waiting across the field for Wilco.)

Who I discovered that I liked: The Raconteurs

Who I wasn't impressed with: The Shins

Run Lolla Run

2006-08-09T17:04:00.000-04:00

July started with a trip to Chicago for my brother's wedding. Here's a photo blog about it! It was a beautiful ceremony despite all the drama. Jeff had bought his tux for the wedding figuring that he needed one, being in the symphony business and all. He'd assumed that he brought it back from Pittsburgh to Chicago on one of their many trips back for wedding stuff. Unfortunately, his bachelor karaoke session got cancelled once he realized he wasn't able to find it the night before the wedding. Thinking fast, he called the Men's Warehouse the next morning, and even the one in Pittsburgh b/c it opened an hour earlier and convinced him to check their database to find the same tux in the Chicagoland area. It worked out well.

Some friends and I also hit Chicago again at the beginning of August for Lollapalooza. It was an awesome show especially after a quiet week in Wisconsin.

More to come...

End Orleans

2006-06-27T16:40:00.000-04:00

At the end of my trip, I was craving vegetables so much. I had great food, but I don't think I could eat like that all the time.

The 9th Ward: Robin met a local who took her on a tour of the 9th ward on Fri. Here's the Lita Blog entry about it, with pictures.

For dinner on Friday, I first met up with the other ALA interns at Cajun Cabin in the French Quarter where I had a cup of seafood gumbo (it was ok). Afterwards, we stopped by another happy hour at some Irish place with a fountain. Then, it was out to find food again. We stumbled upon Cafe Beignet which had a nice live jazz group playing in the courtyard. There, I had some fried okra and bread pudding.

On Saturday, the exhibits opened and I heard Madeleine Albright speak. I met up with some new conference friends, and we headed to Acme Oyster House. I got a sampler plate which had gumbo, red beans and rice, and jambalaya. The gumbo here was much better than at the first place. We also went up to Cafe du Monde to have some beignets and chocolate milk. Beignets are essentially a square of fried dough dusted with powdered sugar. I also somehow lose my white sweater around this time, though I don't realize it until I pack to leave.

Sunday, I realize, sadly, that Central Grocery was closed on Sunday and Monday, meaning that I'd missed my chance for one of their muffulettas. The bell hop I talked to pointed me to Napoleon House instead. I split a muffuletta with another Rutgers alum that I ran into at the restaurant. With the sandwich, I'd hit everything that I wanted to try in New Orleans. My favorite item was the jambalaya.

At the conference, I'd attended some important committee meetings dealing with privacy and telecommunications (for libraries and in general). One thing that we'd like to do is to push for ALA to begin a national conversation about privacy. As Nancy Kranich pointed out, librarians set the groundwork for a national discussion on privacy with our work on the USA PATRIOT Act. Privacy isn't just important or relevant with library records, instead, we must work for everyone to understand why privacy is important, for everything from phone and banking records to the webpages that we look at to the people that we hang out with.

At the exhibits, I met Neil Gaiman at a book signing for HarperCollins, shipped 2 big padded mailers of books back to myself, and shipped 1 big padded mailer of books to Scott's mom, a children's librarian, and carried another big bag of books with me on the plane to distribute in Chicago. I also left with 2 notebooks from Google, Microsoft mini-Nalgene bottles, and about 12 cloth bags. It was a fun time.

New Orleans

2006-06-23T14:17:00.000-04:00

I'm in New Orleans for the annual American Library Assocation conference. I'm staying with a few other recent Rutgers SCILS graduates in duplex house place owned by a B&B called the Banana Courtyard. It's about 1/2 a mile from the French Quarter. We got in last night, and tried to go to Port of Call, but the wait was too long. So, we hit a Thai place down the street instead. (We were hungry and it was late.)

Today, I've been in the ALA advisory committee to the Office of Information Technology Policy (OITP) meeting. I'm an intern (jr. member) on the committee, and I get to give a lot of input regarding my engineering and public policy related stuff.

For lunch, some of us headed to Deanie's Restaurant where I had a shrimp po' boy. I'm going to make the best effort I can to get all the unique to New Orleans food I can.

More later...

June

2006-06-23T14:08:00.000-04:00

June was a fun month. There was the Three Rivers Arts festival, where we caught a bunch of bands for free. My favorite was Andrew Bird, and we also saw the eels and the Tragically Hip. That Andrew Bird (NU grad!) he's some violinst and whistler. I can't wait to see him again at Lollapalooza. It rivals the time I got to make small chat with Peter Buck at the Minus 5 show a few months ago. Minus 5 was at Club Cafe, a small club venue in Pittsburgh, and he hung out after his set to talk to people and sign CDs, something that would never have happened at a huge REM show.

I also played a lot of softball, so much so, that the season's already over due to the lack of a field. I was on an EPP team and a MechE team.

Oh, and Rich officially graduated from Princeton! We hit Princeton twice in the last month. The first time for a wedding at the Prospect House, and the second time for Reunions and Commencement! I should post some pictures.

Things to do in Pittsburgh

2006-05-23T13:11:00.000-04:00

Marcus always seems to know what's going on in Pittsburgh, like the roller derby/downtown bash that happened last weekend. So, I asked him how he always has his finger on the pulse of Pgh. He pointed me to This is Happening and I Heart Pittsburgh. Now, if we only had some mid-sized music venues so more bands would come here...

Done with the first year!

2006-05-23T13:03:00.000-04:00

Hooray! I've been done with my first year of grad school for about a week and a half now. It's nice to have some of my own time again instead of spending 12 hours a day in the office. It was a harrowing Finals week, but I got through it, learning how to do data analysis, design surveys, design usable interfaces for privacy and security, and why people act the way they do according to behavioral economics. I even picked up some computer security and cryptography knowledge along the way.

To celebrate the end, a bunch of EPPers had BBQs. It's that time of year! I haven't fired up my grill yet, but I will once I move it to my new place.

Speaking of, I'll be moving gradually over the next few months. Paul closed on his house, and I'm heading to Greenfield. We live behind the Giant Eagle down there and next to where the buses are. We also joined an organic farm for the summer, so we'll be doing lots of cooking. It's great! They deliver a box of food every week, and we go pick it up from our local neighborhood drop off location.

Aidwalk NYC

2006-05-07T20:55:00.000-04:00

Mike, Jeffrey, and Regina are the header for this year's AIDS Walk New York.

Colbert = Awesome

2006-05-01T09:40:00.000-04:00

Stephen Colbert (NU alum!) gave the keynote speech at the White House Press Correspondent's Dinner on Saturday night. His audience, understandably, was pretty much dead. Joke after joke, and dead silence... Why? He got to look Bush in the face and say things like "don't mind your low approval ratings. Those are based on reality, and we all know that reality has a liberal-bias." Who knows who picked him to give this speech, but if they'd been watching his show they would have known about the "cool reception" that W. and Laura would have given Stephen Colbert after his speech and audition video for White House Press Secretary.

Here's a link to the videos via Boing Boing.

~*harraton.com*~