We are tracking a full agenda at the conference today as fall color begins to explode outside on the Bentley College campus. Inside, some new professional connections are happening amongst industry reps, academics, researchers and AARP executives. It was great running into a Bentley professor and conference host who taught me graphic production 20 years ago at the University of Maryland.

- mike lee - waltham, ma

Lobster's the dinner to get when in Boston--especially when your boss is buying. So that's what I ordered at Jimmy's Harborside Restaurant tonight. The shell of this creature is stuffed with extra lobster meat, scallops, crabmeat and shrimp. It was all deelish and I'm way overstuffed. I wonder if seafood coma is possible. After dinner, we rode out of Boston to our hotel in Waltham.

- mike lee - waltham, ma

I'm in Cambridge with a few hours to kill before an evening reception. So after an obligatory stop into the MIT Press Bookstore, I 1) admired the fall foliage by the Media Lab, 2) walked over to the Stata Center, where I 3) discovered that the mirror-smooth stainless steel cladding of parts of the exterior casts very cool light patterns in the commons area. Then I went past the 4) unhacked dome, and cut over to the river and the 5) sailing pavillion. It's a cozy 75 degrees out with low humidity and totally clear sky. After I have a snack at a bar and meet up with my wife, we're going to walk around some more.

- mike lee - cambridge, ma

Seems like I'm in Boston once a month now for one reason or another. I'm at terminal C again at BWI waiting for a flight at attend Aging By Design, a two-day conference we are co-sponsoring with Bently College. The talks start tomorrow, but tonight we're having a speaker's reception at the MIT Media Lab. Wife Amy is speaking Tuesday morning. She is taking a later flight today so she can drop baby off at mom's. Coming home Tuesday could be a challenge as it seems the remains of Hurricane Jeanne will be over Maryland then.

- mike lee - baltimore

Photos for previous.

1) swirl of baby's hair 2) lissajous contours left by a pendulum in sand 3) leaf in a garden

- mike lee - baltimore

...rain down on a happy dog.

- mike lee - baltimore

Robbie Blinkoff, principal anthropologist of Context Research, is taking a group of us through a relaxing guided visualization exercise. Everyone has closed their eyes and Robbie, in a soothing voice, is telling a story about life in a village in Papua New Guinea. After this, he will go on to speak about how he uses the direct observation techniques of ethnography to improve the design and marketing of consumer products.

- mike lee - washington, dc

Well, the original Star Wars Trilogy, the most highly anticipated DVDs ever, have finally arrived on my desk today from Amazon. The package was just shrinkwrapped with a promo card around the silver slipcase holding the four DVDs. I just had to pick off the loogie of glue under the card and was pleasantly surprised that I didn't have to unwrap each of the cases and peel off security tape. At first glance, A New Hope looks and sounds outstanding. Watching these movies again will bring back good memories of lining up back in 1977 to see the movie umpteen times, and of the years after that I worked as a projectionist and theater manager.

And to contrast the boxed set, I also have The Best of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, which has the classic gut-bustingly funny Attack of the Nerds.

- mike lee - baltimore

One the way home tonight I stopped into the T-Mobile Store maul at Columbia, Maryland to take a look at the Sidekick II. They just got their shipment in today. I only played with the non-functional demo, which sported a cool removable screen! The device felt OK to hold and I agree with what everyone has said about having to get used to the deeply recessed and rubbery keyboard.

The salesperson said that no rebates have been announced yet and that the Sidekick II would cost me $385. He suggested that I try the online upgrade program which made me smirk. I'm waiting a while rather than throw myself into the T-Mobile vortex of confusion.

On balance, it seems that the call-in upgrade program--now web form with call back--has created more ill will than anything. It was a debacle of weak fullfillment process giving in to the crush of thousands of over-eager Sidekick geeks*--some of whom called hundreds of times. I gave myself one hour during the first offer and will wait some more because the second offer with three try call back confirmation doesn't work for me as I don't get a signal at my office and am frequently sitting in meetings away from my desk.

The whole phone order process begins to look medieval if you think a little about the on board Catalog or "Download Fun" capability. Wouldn't it be cool if you could just upgrade your phone on the go by simply entering your account password and accepting agreement terms right on the Sidekick? The Catalog could first present some marketing pages about the new phone product or even play a short audio clip of Zeta-Jones. The upgrade screen flow would guide you through any account details requiring decisions and perhaps upsell you on accessories. The final click OK would start the fullfillment process to have the unit shipped out, or even more cleverly, might direct you to the store of your choice for product pickup.

We're probably not going to live this fantasy anytime soon because Danger, T-Mobile and DHL would have to implement sophisticated web services behind the scenes. But these companies, and the industry as a whole, can ill afford not to work towards a world of intergrated systems because human-powered call centers can not be scaled up to support a future where most people have cell phones and upgrade them frequently.

- mike lee - *sidekick geek in baltimore, md