Meg’s Blog

Something Cool- MicroMiser

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:35:53 -0500

My husband has been working for MiserWare since last May, and I finally downloaded and tried out their beta program!
MiserWare is a local company, situated in Blacksburg, VA near Virginia Tech, which was started by one of the CS professors at VT and his graduate students. Their products, MicroMiser and ServerMiser, can reduce the amount of energy your system uses up to 35% without sacrificing performance. Other methods of power management that come native to Windows or can be installed on Linux either don’t save as much energy or have noticeable impacts on your machine performance. MicroMiser has been designed for individual machines, and ServerMiser has been designed for data centers.
Right now, if you are running Linux or Windows, you can try MicroMiser for free! They just launched their Windows beta a couple days ago and the Linux version about six months ago. I started using MicroMiser on the PC I have in the graduate lab, and the screen shot above is MicroMiser telling me how much energy I am saving.
They are really trying to recruit as many people as possible to use their beta version of MicroMiser. They are even giving away iPod Nanos to the first 50 people to earn 225 “recruiting points”, and will give away Eee PCs to the top recruiters at the end of the recruiting period. I have already secured myself one of the iPod Nanos, (YAY! I never win anything!!!) and I’m working on the Eee PC!
If you would like to try MicroMiser, help the guys at MiserWare test their product, and help me earn an Eee PC, you should go to this link:
https://secure.miserware.com/account/signup/?ref=slegogudrasubresestipretaphesp

You’ll have to sign the license agreement, and then you can download the appropriate version of the software and follow the (easy) installation instructions. My install only took about 30 seconds to complete. If for any reason you have problems installing it, or just have questions, you can email them at support@miserware.com .
Really, this might be the easiest way ever to reduce your carbon footprint. So try it!

Giving away our Christmas tree

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 16:02:42 -0500

Above you will see a picture of the first Christmas tree Wes and I ever put up as a married couple. Its an artificial tree, a hand-me-down from Wes’s mother. We didn’t have very many ornaments, but it was quite lovely to me. Unfortunately, we put it up the first year we were married, but after that we never put it up again.
Our first year of marriage was spent in an apartment with a large living room, but then we bought our own town-house that has much less space. Also, we are always with our families on Christmas day, and we have a cat that likes to tear paths destruction while we are away. The tree is just not very practical for us, and for the past three Christmases its been stored away and never used.
This year I decided to let someone else get good use out of it since we wouldn’t be. I posted it on Freecycle, and within 20 minutes I had a taker. Freecycle is a non-profit organization that sets up websites for communities to post and request discarded items. The idea is reduce the amount of stuff that goes to landfills by giving it to someone who can use it. I’ve posted quite a few bits and bobs on Freecycle, but this is the biggest item by far.
The family who will be using my Christmas tree this year is a family of six, mom, dad, and 4 kiddos, who have been hit by the recession. The dad lost his job and had to start a new one, while the mom has been out of work since she had to quit due to a high-risk pregnancy. As they said in their email, they weren’t planning on getting a tree this year since it would take away from the number of gifts they could afford to give their children. Now they’ll have a free tree and some lights to go along with it. If you had some old Christmas decorations you were thinking of getting rid of, then I really encourage you to put it on Freecycle. You never know what value someone else may get from what you no longer need.

I run slow, but I still run!

Mon, 2 Nov 2009 16:51:42 -0500

I think that even if you walk the whole distance, completing a marathon is an accomplishment. Whether you can maintain an 8 minute mile or are somewhere around a 15 m/m you deserve that finishers’ medal. Thats why article like “Plodders have a place, but is it in a marathon?” (in the NY Times) make me more than a little upset.
I sign-up for races of all sorts to push myself towards a fitness goal. When I first started running in 2007 I was a good 30 pounds heavier than what I am now, and I started a “couch to 5k” program to shed some weight. Signing up for a 5k race was a way for me to confirm and celebrate my commitment to personal fitness. When I crossed the finish line nearly 40 minutes after I started I was incredibly proud of myself. Who cares if I was slow? I had just spent the past 12 weeks getting myself to the point where I could run 3 miles without stopping. When we live in a nation where obesity is on the rise and obesity related illness is costing us billions, wouldn’t runners of all sorts want to encourage fitness goals like mine?
Meg’s 5k Race History: - First 5k, March 2007 : 39:40 - 5k, August 2007: 36:47 - 5k, August 2008 : 33:29 - 5k, August 2009 : 34:10
Meg’s 10k Race History: - First 10k, April 2009 : 1:10:28 - 10k, August 2009: 1:14:00 (the mountains of WV are brutal!)
Meg’s Tri History: - First Sprint Tri, May 2008 : 2:01:18 - Sprint Tri, August 2008: 1:50:59 - Sprint Tri, May 2009: 1:55:35 - First Olympic Tri, September 2009: 3:48:18
As you can tell from the times above, I am by no means a super star. Since 2007 my running has gotten better - I can go a bit faster for a bit longer, but even when I have been at my “peak”, thus far, I run a 10 minute mile. During all of my races I follow all the race rules and I listen to course directors. I make sure to stay to the right and let the faster people pass me by. I even cheer for the people who pass me, and I’m just generally there to have a good time. Can elite runners not share the course with a few over-weight but dedicated runners like myself? Well, I frankly don’t care what they think. I’m looking for more races to sign-up for right now :-)
Thanks to Mr. Geoff Zelenka for sending me the article link ;-)

Social Networking for the ABWA

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:45:56 -0400

This past week I gave a talk on social networking tools to the ABWA chapter in Blacksburg. ABWA stands for the American Business Women’s Association, and their mission is “To bring together businesswomen of diverse occupations and to provide opportunities for them to help themselves and others grow personally and professionally through leadership; education, networking support and national recognition.”
I’m not quite sure what series of events led to me giving this talk for this organization. Someone knew someone, who knew Mel, who is my husband’s boss’s wife, who asked my husband if I’d do this as a favor. I’m glad I gave the talk though, even if my research and expertise really has nothing to do with social networking tools. I embraced it as a chance to interact with potential stakeholders of technology, and got to interact with a group of people I am most likely not going to encounter much in my future (since it seems I am academia bound).
My talk consisted of a mile-high overview of Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, and Blogging. I showed them screen-shots, how to sign-up, and some basic features of each technology. (I only had 20 minutes!) I got some really interesting questions. My favorite one was, “if I de-friend someone on Facebook, do they get a message about it?” To which, my answer was “no”. I also got a few questions I didn’t know the answer to, but other audience members did.
After my talk, I was a passive participant for the rest of the ABWA meeting. They discussed one of their major community-service efforts - The Montgomery County Christmas Store, which provides Christmas presents for families that can’t afford much, and their upcoming “Shop till you Drop” fundraising event. They also swore in new members, and had a portion of the meeting dedicated to “networking”. Overall it was a good time, and I’m glad I got to meet some of the warm, friendly, movers and shakers of the ABWA.

GHC 09: Final Report

Sun, 4 Oct 2009 13:04:05 -0400

Around 1:00 am last night I walked through my front door after a fantastic 3 days at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing at Tucson, AZ. I came back weighted down with mountains of swag, a folder full of business cards and contacts, and a mind full of new ideas and inspiration. Again I’d like to report on my two favorite activities from the last day of the conference.
Systers Lunch
At each Grace Hopper, the women from the Systers list try to get together and actually meet one another face-to-face. This year they had you draw a random number which determined what table you sat at. My table had an undergraduate, a few grad students like myself, a “life-coach”, a developer for Apple, and two executives of the Anita Borg Institute. During the lunch we heard from one of the Systers Pass-It-On Award winners, Oreoluwa from Nigeria. She used the money to hold a week-long intensive women’s technology empowerment camp for middle-school aged students. The camp focused on teaching the girls basic computer skills, such as email and web-search, and fostering an interest in pursuing computer studies further. While she was describing her project, a wine glass was passed around for collecting donations, and over $500 was collected. That is enough money for one more Pass-It-On award.
Brenda Laurel: Tools for Change: Human-Centered Design Research
Brenda Laurel is a professor in Design at the California College of the Arts and she was an invited technical speaker for this year’s GHC. Brenda structured her talk by giving us a timeline of the different companies she’s worked for (including big names like Atari and Apple) and the projects she’s been a part of. In particular, She gave a description of working on the Purple Moon video games for tweens. Brenda spent a lot of time observing both girls and boys play games and found that boys tended to enjoy overt competition and characters that possessed strength. Girls, on the other hand, enjoyed covert competition and characters that had hidden knowledge or abilities. The Purple Moon games didn’t have a demarkation of winning or losing, but rather allowed the player to influence the world around them, make decisions, and gain skills or knowledge along the way. I never played any of the Purple Moon games that came out in the 90s, but I vaguely remember seeing the games at my friends’ houses. Brenda also discussed the importance of doing human-centered research and design. She said you had to “meet the users where they are” and “leave your preconceptions at the door” when you observed or interviewed your target users. Her discussion of ethnographic techniques really resonated with me, since that is the type of methodology I have used for the projects I’ve been involved with. She also gave a pro-tip about observing users: pay attention to the shoes! The shoes tell you a lot about a person. They tell you what kind of activities they may enjoy, whether they have back problems or other similar difficulties, how much walking they usually do, and the style they want to convey. I’ll have to remember that the next time I do observations for research!
Sponsor Reception
The last night of the conference is celebrated with sponsor night reception. Microsoft and Google handed out t-shirts, Intel raffled off two net-books, Apple gave away a few Macs, and several other big prizes were up for grabs. Unfortunately, I didn’t win any of the big prizes, but I did have a lot of fun. There was more dancing and the VT women, once again, held our place on the dance floor till the very end. I had a blast at GHC 09, and I’m already looking forward to GHC 2010 in Atlanta, GA.
Other links to check out:
The Anita Borg Institute - ABI’s mission is to support and encourage female technologists and they are the organizers of GHC.
The GHC 09 Wiki - Want to get a copy of a presenter’s slides? You can probably find them on the GHC wiki.
Blogs from the GHC 09 - If you were unable to come to GHC or for some reason missed a session you wanted to check out, you can probably find a summary of it on one of the GHC blogs.
“I am a technical woman” video - This is a video developed by the Anita Borg Institute in hopes of showing the diversity of women in our field. (You can see me dancing towards the end!)

GHC 09: Thursday Report

Fri, 2 Oct 2009 14:20:29 -0400

Yesterday was Day 2 of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, and I’d like to reflect on two of my favorite sessions of the day.
Keynote Speech by Megan Smith: Vice President, New Business Development & General Manager, Google.org
Google is in a position to gather a lot of data. By collecting the terms that people search for and recording the times and dates that these search terms are used, they can tell what the world is concerned about and notice the patterns of social interest. One example that Megan gave had to do with health care and disease spread. Now-a-days, when you feel ill, you turn to your computer and search out medical information on the symptoms you have. Do you need to go to the doctor or do you just need chicken-noodle soup? When the people at google realized that they had this collection of data on current medical issues, and could trace trends in the search terms used, they were able to determine and predict the spread of illnesses like the flu faster than the current methods being used today. When you go to the doctor to report your symptoms and ask for help, it takes over three days for this data to reach the national institute of health who then has to interpret and present the data. When you search for your symptoms on google, they have that data in a digital form as soon as you enter it. Megan felt that this put Google in a place to do a lot of social good, and that potentially difficult medical issues could begin to be solved from interpreting this impressive amount of data.
Megan also gave some great examples of how the digital world has created more transparency in politics. For example, in many African countries there is corruption, and this corruption is well known in the communities. Also, while desktop computers are not used frequently in emerging countries there is a large number of mobile phones. Some brilliant individuals in South Africa made an iPhone app that would help you find directions to other towns and record the places where you would likely find police or have to pay a bribe. This application provided a place for communities to share information about corrupt government entities, and also brought the corruption into the public view. As Megan said, by shining a light on these places of corruption, the corruption starts to disappear. Another example of this was the use of Twitter during the recent Iranian elections. The people of Iran were able to get their message out to the rest of the world, a message that would usually be repressed by the government, and by bringing it to the attention of the world the world was able to respond.
Technical Executive Plenary Session - What you need to know on the road to Becoming a Technology Executive.
This panel was packed with high-up executives in a variety of big technical companies including: Linda Brisnehan, VP in Lockheed Martin; Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon; Nora Densel, VP in Intuit; and Sophie Vandebroek, CTO of Xerox. The panel was led by one of my favorite “regulars” of GHC, Maria Klawe, the President of Harvey Mudd College.
The panel was structured informally, in that Maria started by asking the panel to give a brief description of themselves and how they got to the position they are in, and then took questions from the audience. In particular, the panelists were asked to give us examples of when they lost the “invincible” feeling you have when you are young. Werner (of Amazon) said that he lost his “invincible” feeling when his company was first starting out. He started to see how incredibly vulnerable his company and dream was, that his success depended on other people who may not have his same passion, and this was something difficult to deal with. Sophie (of Xeorox) said she first lost her invincible feeling when she changed jobs in hopes of finding something better, found out it was a bad decision, and had to beg for her previous job back. Both Sophie and Nora (Intuit) described your career path as less of a path and more like an obstacle course. The important thing to realize is that you have to take risks, you have to confront obstacles, and if its a career you are meant to pursue then you will get a buzz and energy from over-coming these obstacles. If you find yourself drained by every obstacle you come to, then you should consider switching courses and changing directions.
The panelists were also asked if they felt women in technical fields took on enough professional risks, to which they replied, “absolutely not.” If you want to succeed, if your dream is to be at the top and in charge, then you are going to take risks. You may often fail, but there is no other way to get there. Linda (of Lockheed Martin) in particular felt that women were less likely than their male peers to “put themselves out there” and take the big risks.
Dancing!
I was once told by a friend that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, but the way to a woman’s heart is through dancing. As always at GHC, the second day of the conference was punctuated with an awards ceremony and dancing. (They take the “celebrating” part very seriously.) There is nothing quite like dancing with other computer science students, CTOs in technical companies, college administrators, and even Turing Award winners that are (almost) all women! Mark Zuckerberg (Founder of Facebook) was out on the floor for a moment because he was forced to by Maria Klawe, and a couple of the male recruiters from Microsoft stayed out dancing till the party shut down. The VT girls were definitely in force on the dance floor, as we always are, and it was a perfect end to an enlightening and full day.

GHC 09: Wednesday Report

Thu, 1 Oct 2009 14:19:58 -0400

I am currently in Tucson, AZ attending the 9th Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. This is my third GHC, and it may just be the best one yet. I am really excited that I (1) was able to contribute to this year’s conference proceedings and (2) received an NSF scholarship so I could attend.
 This year I participated in both the PhD Forum and the general poster session. For both, the title of my project was “Classroom resources and impact on learning”. If I had to summarize my research questions in one brief phrase, I would say “what does it look like for educational technologies to be used with success?” Computing certainly has come far in the past decade, in that no employer would question the value of computing resources in the work place. But people do question the value of technology in educational settings. The Department of Education in the USA has published reports bringing the use of educational technologies under attack. They feel like if you spend the money and put resources in classrooms, magic should happen, and students should learn more. Unfortunately, learning doesn’t happen by merely being in the presence of great resources - you actually have to use them, and use them well! So far, no one has been able to determine what it means to design and use educational technologies with success and my goal is to shed light on this new frontier.
I have presented my dissertation work at a few other conferences, and I’ve gotten some mixed responses. At traditional CS conferences people seem to say, “yea yea yea, education is great, but what can you tell me about technology design?”. At education conferences people seem to say, “who cares about technology, tell me more about teacher practices.” At Grace Hopper I seem to have found the population who cares about both! Everyone here is a technologist - we want to design technology and design it well. But everyone here has also been put in situations where they are in the minority, the only woman in the room, and we can’t help but question why. Why aren’t their more of us? What can we do to encourage more women to enter our field? Inevitably we turn to education, and therefore put great value in quality education and experiences that foster a desire to learn about mathematics, engineering, and all the technical things we love.
The one thing I regret about this year’s GHC is that I’m not in a position to start applying for jobs! During my poster presentation several women in industry and in academia asked me when I was planning to graduate because they had positions they felt I’d be interested in. It turns out that iRobot has launched a new initiative called SPARK for developing educational materials around AI and Robotics. Microsoft also has an education initiative and is looking for qualified researchers. Also, a professor from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota told me I should apply for one of their tenure track positions that has opened up. I may actually send in an application to some of the professorial positions that were brought to my attention. As my adviser has said, preparing a job application “makes you think” and makes you consider where you are going next. While I may not be quite ready to move on to the next big thing, I’m certainly ready to start thinking about it!

Deadlines, Meetings, Conferences, Oh my!

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:50:01 -0400

This past week there was the deadline of all deadlines for those of us in HCI - CHI 2010 submissions. CHI is the biggest conference we have for HCI research, and arguably the most prestigious. Acceptance rates are usually lower than 20%. Nearly everyone in my lab submitted a paper, and some of them more than one. I submitted a paper with my adviser (Deborah Tatar) and Steve Harrison. It turned into a really fantastic paper that I am very proud of, but we were working on it all the way up to the last minute. I submitted the paper at 7:59pm with Deborah and Steve exhaling sighs of relief over my shoulder as they watched the upload progress bar. Needless to say, the paper was due at 8pm. I really have no predictions on whether it will be accepted or not. I think the reviewers will either love it or hate, no in-betweens, because we are arguing a fairly controversial point.
On Wednesday this week I will be taking a trip out to Menlo Park, CA to visit some colleagues at SRI International. There will be other researchers on the Scaling-Up SimCalc project there, and the topic for the meeting is case-study data. I’ll present some of the interesting phenomenon that I’ve come across in my videos and hear from others doing similar research. (Hopefully I’ll get my act together and actually compose a presentation soon!) Then on Friday evening I’ll have a chance to do dinner with my Aunt Joan in San Fran too.
Up above you will see a much smaller version of my poster for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. I’ll be participating in the HCI PhD forum and the poster session during this year’s GHC in Tucson, AZ. I am *really* looking forward to it. This will be my 3rd GHC but the 1st I’ve been an active participant in. My favorite part of the conference is the dancing. Thats right, at this technical conference we have a dance because the creators of GHC took the “celebration” part very seriously. I’ll be leaving for GHC on Tuesday, Sept. 29th (along with 16 or so other women from VT!)and coming back the following Saturday.
Thats the news in my life for now. I’ve also been busy writing essays for various scholarship applications and I plan on turning my essays into blog posts, so look for those soon. Have a great week!

Race Report - The Nations Triathlon

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 10:43:42 -0400

On Sunday, September 13th, around 7:54am, I was treading water in the Potomac river waiting for the gun to fire. I wasn’t alone. There were about 50 other women between 25 and 30 years old treading water with me. Some words of encouragement were shared: “Good luck, ladies!”, “Great day for a race!”, “Go Yellow Caps!” (the color of our swim caps), and then the gun fired - We were off!
Swim 1.5k - The swim course took us 750 meters up river, under the Memorial Bridge, and then 750 back down river. The current wasn’t too terribly strong, but you could definitely tell the difference when we made the turn around. Swimming in the Potomac was.....interesting. It was a little dirty (as in earthy dirt, not people dirt), but the main complication was the number of people swimming at one time. I got kicked a couple times, on accident, which made things a little difficult. I managed to do the swim in 38 minutes and 33 seconds - not bad for my first 1500 meter open water swim!
T1 and T2 - The transition area was massive - over 200,000 square feet! They needed all that space to fit in the 6000 racers and their gear. It was a really incredible thing to see. I managed to do T1 in 4 minutes 29 seconds, and similarly for T2 in 4 minutes 27 seconds.
Bike 40k - The bike course was an out-and-back that took us up the Rock Creek parkway near Maryland. By the time I got out on my bike the course was packed, which made it a little scary at times. I’m not the best biker, so I usually try to ride to the right and let people pass on the left. Sometimes there would be 4 people trying to go around me at once and it would get pretty crazy. Also, D.C. has pot holes. I went over one massive one and was thanking my lucky stars I didn’t get a flat. Overall I did pretty well though and did the ~26 miles in 1 hour 38 minutes and 13 seconds.
Run 10k - After all that biking and swimming, I was sore. I ended up walking a big chunk of the running course, especially towards the end. Thankfully, they had aid stations every mile, so I would try my best to run to the next aid station, grab two things of water, and drink them slowly while I walked. Even though I was pretty sore, I think the running leg was my favorite this time. Other racers would stop and walk with me for a bit and we would get to talking. Lots of people were raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Team In Training and usually had someone in mind that they were dedicating this race to. Overall, it was a great experience, and I managed to trudge through the 10k in 1 hour 22 minutes and 38 seconds.
Finish Line! - I ran across the finish line 3 hours 48 minutes and 18 seconds after I started the race. I collected my finishers medal and found my family waiting in the shade. Wes snapped the picture above: from left to right it is me, my sister Jennifer, and my Aunt Judy. We all did a great job at our first ever olympic distance triathlon. Now we have to decide on which challenge to tackle next... ;-)

Anniversary, New School Year, and the New Ride

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:12:54 -0400

On August 6th, Wes and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. A lot has happened in 4 years, yet I still feel like a newly wed. I gave Wes two video games for the Xbox (Project Gotham Racing 4 and Ghostbusters), as well as a set of driving gloves and a Porsche key chain. Wes gave me a Time Capsule, which is a wireless router and 500-gig hard drive all in one. It is pretty cool, and does automatic back-ups with Time Machine every time I am connected to the network. We celebrated by going out to dinner at Bookbinders and going to see “Funny People” at the movie theatre. It was a relaxing and low-key celebration, and it was just what we wanted.
In the picture above, you will see Wes chillin’ in his new ride. My little 1997 Honda Accord was dying, and Wes has been aching to have a little sports car since I’ve met him. So we figured this was the perfect time to go for it. It is a 2009 Saturn Sky Redline, and it is the most impractical car I’ve ever seen. It only has two seats, so Wes can only carry himself plus one more. There is only one cup holder. It is a convertible, and when you have the top down there is virtually no space left in the trunk. It only weighs 2500 pounds and is rear wheel drive, so it’ll spend most of the winter under a cover. And to top it all off, it is a manual, which neither Wes nor I know how to drive. Wes has been quickly learning and he’ll be proficient by the end of the week, but still, it really is the most impractical purchase we’ve ever made. However, its cute, and speedy, and so much fun. Wes deserves something fun, and right now it works.
My fall and spring schedule is also starting to fill-up. I found out that my CSCW paper was accepted, so I’ll be heading there in February to give a presentation. In late September I’m planning on taking a trip to SRI in Menlo Park, CA to give an update on my dissertation work. I’m hoping to meet up with my Aunt Joan while I’m there for some dinner. In early October I’ll be participating in the PhD Forum and poster session for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Tucson, AZ. Also, I applied for the ADVANCE “Preparing the Future Professoriate” workshop at RICE, and if I’m accepted, I’ll be going to Houston, TX for that in late October. There are also some family trips happening in the fall. On August 29th my friend Theresa is getting married in Bethesda, MD, for labor day weekend Wes and I are going to Connecticut to celebrate his grandparents 80th birthday, and on September 13th I’ll be competing in the Nations Triathlon in Washintong, D.C. Its looking like an exciting yet busy school year!