I’ve returned to delicious, last.fm and Flickr (although I prefer SmugMug). I’ve gone so far as to add Gmail, Twitter and of course, Facebook.

The good thing is that now that I’m no longer hosting most of my online identity, I can do things like drop in SmugMug photos (even ones taken from my iPhone) easily. I took this one from the new apartment.

I still think Web 2.0 in its current configuration is really bad for users. Just a few weeks ago, I ran an application that pulled all my friends information from Facebook. Facebook responded by locking my account and preventing me from seeing my messages, photos, events, contacts, links, etc. They did not let me know why they closed the account and all emails I sent to them went unanswered. A similar thing happened to internet hero, Robert Scobel. Luckily, I know some folks who are connected to Facebook and so I worked that social network for a few days and eventually got the account back.

These companies should not have that kind of power over our data, but until someone comes up with a better solution for me to keep track of my friends, I guess I’ll have to man up and take my chances…

The morning after Hélène and I moved into our new place (at the corner of Bellevue, Bellevue and Bellevue), I flew out to Italy to meet up with Gaetano, Tap and Brian for the HCI4CID workshop @ CHI 2008. In Italy, we saw Lucca, Florence, Naples and Vatican City.

From Italy, I went down to Tanzania (Dar Es Salaam) to talk to a few NGOs to get a sense of what problems they were having that computers could help with. I’m now in Rwanda for a few days to touch base with the crew at Rwinkwavu and talk to one or two more NGOs before I head back to Seattle.

I *should* write a much longer post, but I’ll fall back to the old standard of pictures. I have a few from Italy and Tanzania that you should check out.

It’s a two bedroom at Belmont Ave E & Bellevue Pl E with hardwoods, lots of natural light, plenty of space and an incredible view of downtown, the Space Needle and Lake Union. We move in soon, so stay tuned.

Also, Nodira finally turned 21 and I’ve posted some pictures in the gallery.

Besides getting the standard credit card protection, credit cards offer lots of other perks. For example, Visa and Mastercard protect most purchases from theft or damage for the first 90 days from purchase while your debit card barely protects you against fraud. Additionally, I’ve found credit card companies go out of their way to keep me as a customer — I just have to call to complain about something and it’s generally fixed. So, given that I use them all the time, I’ve been looking into good ways to maximize my money.

Cash back cards are a good way to get a little back from credit cards, but they are generally irritating to use. Either you have to wait to hit a threshold to get a check mailed or you have to make sure to buy at certain stores or you have to redeem points for gift cards or wait a year to get your cash back. All these are hassles I’d like to avoid, so I set out some requirements for a new credit card.

First, it has to be accepted everywhere (sorry Amex and Discover). Second, I want cash applied to my credit card statement automatically or at a minimum via phone. Third, it has to be free of annual fees.

With the help of metafilter and my über googling skills, I came up with these favorites.

• Bank of America‘s Cash Rewards and Financial Rewards offer 1% cash back the cash can be redeemed by phone every $2500.
• Capital One‘s No Hassle Cash has the same deal as the Bank of America, but will also give a 25% annual bonus on the rewards earned.
• Chase Bank’s PerfectCard requires 9 purchases/year to stay annual fee free, but rewards are credited to your account automatically. Rates are 3% on all gas purchases and 1% on everything else.

I already have one of the BoA cards, so I’ll be trying the Capital One in my wallet. If you have other cash back cards you like, please post in the comments.

The shelter is for non-violent homeless teens in the U-District and it’s a place where they can eat, sleep and take it easy while trying to get on their feet. I wish I could say I do it to give a little back to the community, but I’d be lying. The work is mostly fun and takes my mind off grad school.

I was in the kitchen when I heard the explosion above me. It was the kind of loud that startles but doesn’t frighten. Moments after the bang started to fade, I felt debris rain down and instinctively turned my back to the noise. I could have sworn the old dishwasher had exploded, but the draft blowing in from the window suggested otherwise.

It didn’t take long to figure it all out. Someone had thrown an empty forty at the shelter. The bottle had punched a hole in the leaded window and then exploded over my head once it made it through. Cool, huh?

No one was hurt, so I shrugged off the glass and everyone else shrugged off the incident. Just another night at shelter, I guess.

If you aren’t doing any volunteering on MLK Day, you should at least listen to two of his most moving speeches. The first is the famous I Have a Dream (YouTube) and the second is his last, and my favorite, I’ve Been to the Mountain Top.