Found this cool visualization tool, http://wordle.net/. You can give it a set of words or your del.icio.us id and it will create a visualization. Here is the one based on my delicious tags.

Enjoy.

I did my undergraduate at Ball State University. I am very proud of the education that I received there. But there was one thing that I wished it would have been different. BSU was at the time a sort of like a "local" college, in terms that most of the students there were from Indiana. And at the time, the international population at BSU was very small. Notice that I don't mean the latino population, I mean the international group was small. I remember being at a lunch for international students; there were less than 50 people there.

I became an associate dean for the graduate school at some point back in late August. But just over a week ago (Sept 22nd), VT ran a story about my new position in the graduate school. I even wore a tie for the photo shot for the story. As most of you that know me, ties and such formal attires are not high on my list of things I do frequently. I don't make a big deal about it, but I really don't like dressing up formally like that. Ties, suits, etc. in my book are requirements of the banking industry and I am not a banker.

This is an old blog posting that got lost when the hard disk in my server crashed over the summer; I have recovered it from a backup and I'm just now putting it back up.

The title says it all. I am 2/3 vegetarian. I don't eat meat for breakfast or lunch. I only eat meat at dinner. Sounds like some kind of vampire thing: "No meat till sundown!" But it is not.

Today I had a nice long chat with a coleague. As a result I started thinking about the concept of conflict of interest. This is a very boring topic, which will make for a very boring blog entry, but I have to get it off my head. So, here it goes.

Ok, es oficial. I am the son of a Hall of Famer. Yeah, you got it. My dad was selected to be part of the Sports Hall of Fame in Puerto Rico. Here is the story, he will be inducted in a ceremony on Oct 5th. Needless to say, I am hoping on a plane and going home for the weekend to be there. It is quite an emotional time for all of us, he deserves this recognition and it was long overdue. But for now, all that's left to say is that we are honored to have in our family a member of the "Pabellón de la Fama del Deporte Puertorriqueño."

Time to rant about technology again. Do we really need the numbers in the TV channel listings?

I can't make sense of the airline industry. I am trying to make a reservation to Atlanta from Roanoke. I have a complicated trip, so I will try a multi-city trip, Roanoke - Atlanta - DC - Roanoke. Here is part of the trip itinerary that I got from Orbitz:

Well, isn't that the best sign of the times? The software is telling that my phone number has an area code, and 7 other digits. That is news to me. I did not know that. Wow, I am amazed that I was able to function in life without this incredible tidbit of knowledge.

As most of you know, the computing field is going through a lull in enrollments. There are not enough students coming into computing programs to fill the positions available in industry. In addition, we have very poor diversity in our field; not enough students from underrepresented groups (e.g., women, african-americans, hispanics) are enrolling in computing.