In one hour, we're getting an intensive research update tour from Electronic Publishing, Frank Gehry's Smart Car Design Project, John's Physical Language Workshop and the Context-aware Computing Groups. Too much to thumbtype...my brain hurts.

- mike lee - my sidekick crashed and my battery my empty out after this reboot, so maybe no more posts today...

After setting up my PowerPoint file in the Bartos auditorium, our 30-minute Simplicity Consortium sponsor board meeting is in progress here on the second floor of the lab. We're getting a business update, a report on the state of RFID technology and an overview of today's student competition to design digital snowflakes. On the conference table in front of me is the giftwrapped John Maeda Bookclub book, a CD and another little symposium booklet designed by John, which features a few of my photos.

- mike lee - cambridge

Not only is it ccccold out tonight--the low will be close to 0° F--but the business district around the Media Lab shuts down pretty early. Dinner was a room service lobster roll (1), then I worked on my presentation for tomorrow's Snowflake-a-thon

(2), admired Yann Arthus-Bertrand's new book and DVD Being A

Photographer(3) and checked the temperature outside (4), which tells me it's time to hibernate.

- mike lee - cambridge, ma

My wife says via IM that I'm not UP TO THE MINUTE on my posting, so here's the shadow of our taxi as we ride through the Massachusetts countryside.

- mike lee -

I always get an "A" seat by the window which has me looking west on these northbound flights to Boston. I don't get to see the DC skyline on the way out of Reagan, but do see Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City (1-3).

Sandy and I arrived in Boston to 10° F cold (4), grabbed lunch at the airport and are now on a 45 minute ride to see a technology vendor in Littleton, MA.

Note the cheezy-looking WiFi marker signs (5) at Logan. I really wish they would come up with an international symbol for wireless Internet access.

- mike lee - boston

After a stop into the office this morning to check in with various team members, I'm off to the airport. Random concrete barriers are starting to appear around our building as the region around the Inaugural parade route and party events begins a massive lockdown. I'm glad I'm avoiding all the crazy security because I'm in Boston the next two days and off work Thursday.

- mike lee - washington, dc

Abe at Service Photo is helping me spec out a studio flash system for a friend who has just bought a farm which has an extra building that will be converted into a photo studio. We'll see how the $3000-ish estimate for four Elinchrom heads, radio slaves and miscellaneous grip equipment goes over.

- mike lee - baltimore

I don't think I'm desperately seeking the iPod Shuffle, but it is calling to me. The Shuffle that Bill the sales rep at the Apple Store had feels very light, and the placement of the controls is intuitive. Interesting to hear was the fact that you can't just drag MP3 files into the root of the drive directory to play them. The files have to be loaded through iTunes. I imagine someone will create Windows and Mac loader utilities that I can store on the drive. My justification to have a Shuffle is that as long as I'm carrying a large USB flash drive, I might as well spend $30 more for something that plays music too. Bill says they got a few Shuffles in last week which sold in an hour. Another shipment is coming this week.

- mike lee - towson, md

For previous.

We are testing out this product from Dr. George L. Boudreaux of Covington, LA.

On the baby.

This looks like useful stuff. Too bad the graphic design of the box makes it look like a gag gift.

- mike lee - baltimore