That’s it for me techwise for 2011. As for 2012, well, I’m getting married, so that will be my new big adventure. Thanks for reading.

3. Speaker at IgniteNYC - Speaking of Keynotes, I gave one of my own. In the last month of TechStars, I was chosen for IgniteNYC, thanks to Kristen Taylor for encouraging me to submit myself as a candidate. I tried to do something out of the ordinary, so my talk was a LA Survival Guide. I spoke in front of ~800 people and it was a blast. It was a thrill to meet Alexis from Reddit/BreadPig and, and…well, all of the speakers that night. Truth be told, I slept on the couch for a wondrous 3 hours up in the TechStars office cuz I had a tight deadline the next day.

2. HackStar at TechStars - TechStars is incredible. The people selected for it are incredible. David Tisch is incredible. Adam Rothenberg is incredible. I was brought on as a “HackStar”, which ultimately meant I was a floating designer working with the 12 selected companies. I worked with some ridiculously well-credentialed people and, while I was still working 14-16 hour days again, it was well worth it. I certainly got wrapped up in the startup scene and fell in love with the spirit, the potential to be on the ground floor for something huge. Another thing became very clear. Within this world, I was a visual designer, ui, ux, front end code, etc. Plus, if my Keynote skills were not strong before showing up, they certainly were afterward.

After the Summer program ended, I interviewed with quite a few startups. However, as luck would have it, I ended up at a company I met with before all of TechStars…yea, perhaps tomorrow.

1. Graduated from ITP – I successfully graduated with a Master’s Degree from New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. My thesis was entitled BookBridge.me – an exploration of literature redistribution utilizing low cost online dissemination and corporate philanthropic marketing opportunities. Former President Clinton spoke at our graduation ceremony. Both of my parents, my stepparents, and my brother came out to New York and saw my final show at ITP. It was remarkable and I was grateful.

I came out of ITP not knowing how to present myself. I spent my months leading up to graduation trying to line myself up with a job. It was a bit of a mess. I didn’t get the first job to because I didn’t have enough coding skills and I seemed more interested in design. The next interview said I didn’t have enough design skills and seemed to be more interested in coding. I believe this is a theme of many in the ITP realm, where you have grown accustomed to a multivarious approach and no one knows where to put you. I was not able to line up a full time job by graduation. However, the ITP community is incredibly supportive. I had new connections for work and advice from colleagues and former professors and alumni even before I graduated. My freelance work was great for me to sink my teeth into the real world before I became a HackStar…which I will talk about tomorrow.

Stay Tuned

The Incident from Big Bucket Software, sweded by Greg Borenstein, Mike “Frank” Cohen, Spike McCue, David Phillips, and Liza Singer with help from Steve “Kline” Klise and Brian E. Jones.

Objects: taxi, stop sign, lego brick, tool box, coin, crayon, refrigerator, burger, 2000 kg weight, fancy laptop, pizza box, present, space invader, flux capacitor, HAL 9000, helmet, present (agian), monolith.

How to swede: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5Rd8x4OJoY

Get The Incident: http://bigbucketsoftware.com/theincident/

Nuclear power plants have long been deemed frightening and dangerous. Chernobyl still claims the land around it. But recently, the US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu spoke of our inefficient energy methods and said nuclear power must be a part of the mix. However, there are several 4th Generation technologies that could change the energy landscape, two of which I will mention here.
TerraPower, run by the former CTO of Microsoft and backed by Bill Gates, uses a travelling wave reactor(TWR). The technology takes a minute amount of enriched uranium (U-235) along with the far more commonplace U-238. After an initial ignition, the wave travels through and uses up the uranium for roughly 60 years. It eliminates the current nuclear reactor issues, such as creating weapons grade uranium and management of reactor waste, along with overall goals, such as a low CO2 energy source.
The other popular choice is the Intregal Fast Reactor IFR. They have the added benefit of creating less waste than a TWR and can use sources such as thorium in addition to uranium as fuel. It also is much further along in development than a TWR. The US was close to building a working model, but shut down the project 3 years before completion. If a new project was started now, it would still surpass the current TWR timetable.
If we took the nuclear plunge, and our energy sources were met without oil supplies from the Middle East and we took on sustainability, how would that change the landscape of American production? When energy independence is achieved, how does that change the rules of the game? China believes it will require a 1000 GWe by 2020. I would explore these ideas of energy independence through the prism of nuclear power by researching the nuclear industry, specifically TerraPower and any IFR companies and see if I can’t speak to any experts along the way.

Research:

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf63.html

http://bravenewclimate.com/2010/09/22/twr-vs-ifr/

Come on by to the ITP Spring Show 2010!

I have to projects at the show: This one (which will go unnamed for the time being) and UnItv.  They are the awesome.

Unnamed – I’m a huge fan of agitprop.  I’m exploring something at this point that can be called “software theatre.”

UnItv – UNITV is an interactive multiplatform television show. Broadcast live on Manhattan Neighborhood Network with a viewership access of 3,000,000 people, audience participation  paired with improvisation leads to an unparalleled television experience.  Garnered through submission of images, text and other media by home viewers, the actors respond to the material in real time, giving the audience a unique and innovative way to express their voice.

Sunday, May 9, 2-6pm & Monday, May 10, 5-9pm
ITP @ 721 Broadway, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10003

Keynote Presentation

Time Out Concept Project for Antenna Workshop 2010

ITP held a workshop with Antenna Design.  We were given the assignment to ‘design an intervention (= installation or an automated machine) for “interactive services” in public space which will generate a new interaction amongst people.  An “interactive service” is a “mechanism” which provides some service or product for people. It is a kind of hybrid object/environment, such as an automated vending machine, information or entertainment kiosk, street furniture, etc.  My team created a micro-destination station for our NYU Bobst Library for people who need to decompress and create a sense of community or communal experience.  There were 5 separate floors, each with a different destination (ordered by altitude: underwater, beach, rainforest, mountainside, night sky) and each was given unique attributes.  Every station had increased oxygen flow, headphone jacks, lighting control, and richer soundscapes depending on how many people were sitting with you.

It took a few days for us to come to this conclusion however…

Day 1: Our initial idea was a coin-based game that would be played in a planetarium up and down the stairs.  The biggest issue was that our concept wasn’t site specific. We were told to literally go to any physical location and create a site-specific concept.

Day 2: We decided on the Bobst Library.  We thought of a variety of games that could be played from floor to floor and on the ceiling, finally landing on relaxation.   We kept seeing people walk away from their desk to the outside and just stare into nowhere, presumably decompressing from their homework for 5-10 minutes.

Day 3: We created a Keynote presentation and dragged an entire bench in for our presentation.  We had a great time!

Photos of the final presentation were taken by the incomparable Jonathan Ystad
http://geminijono.wordpress.com/2010/01/16/antennaworkshop/