Simon at CHI 2010

The folks at IDG caught Simon and Andrea on tape earlier this week during CHI 2010 here in Atlanta. I’ve heard from multiple sources that the Socially Intelligent Machine Group rocked the boat during the demos on Monday.

Check it out for yourself:

Startup Riot 2009

A few weeks ago I presented at Startup Riot, a relatively new start-up event in Atlanta. 50 companies were selected to give a 3 minute pitch.

Overall the event was well organized and it was great to be part of it. I met lots of new people and made some good connections.

APD Crime Mashup

Over the last several weeks, we’ve been learning more about all the different neighborhoods in Atlanta. There’s a good chance we will be buying a house not too long from now.

In talking to people and doing online research, I recently came across at least a couple of “Web 2.0″ style mash-ups laying various types of information on a Google Map. It’s pretty cool, and useful too. There’s the Crime Map page, by the Atlanta Police Department:

There are others too, such as the Family Watchdog, a web app powered by the National Sex Offender Registry. It’s nice to see all this information coming to the web and becoming easily accessible.

Busy Month

Reason why I haven’t been blogging much these days:

Things have been a bit busy!

Trying out the MARTA

We’ve been in our new house in Atlanta for almost 2 weeks now and things are finally settling into place. We unpacked most of the boxes, got our utilities setup and are starting to feel like we have a new home. Photos will be posted soon!

Today I had the chance to utilize the transit system in Atlanta for the first time. Down here it’s called the MARTA, short for “Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority”. All buses and trains belong to MARTA, kind of like the MBTA in Boston.

I checked the bus schedule online and headed to the stop 10 minutes before the bus was supposed to come. It showed up right on time and was almost completely empty. Its AC was working very well and the ride to Midtown was as comfortable as one could have hoped. No complaints here.

The ride was a bit on the expensive side, $1.75, but with people driving their cars everywhere down here, I bet the MARTA can’t make enough money on volume to justify a lower fare. The funny thing is that right before we got here, I asked lots of people about the MARTA. Almost without exception, everyone would roll their eyes and start complaining about it. Well, my experience with it up to this point has been great and I hope it stays that way!