The Build-a-thon teams re-assembled in the lower atrium of the lab to have breakfast and do final tweaks to their projects. Then we all gathered in the auditorium to see eight very different approaches to presenting ad banners, and the team I joined presented too. Since this was an invite-only workshop, I'm not sure if any of the work will be posted publically online anytime soon. But there were many innovative ideas.

The rest of the day: 2) I ate a bag lunch in John's lab. That's a Sony Aibo dog sniffing up my food. 3) Checking in with one of John's students who is working on senior-friendly clock designs. Laura is pictured holding up a very preliminary breadboard of part of a clock circuit. 4) After saying my goodbyes at the lab, I stopped into the MIT Press Bookstore. For the first time ever, I made it out of there with one book: Folding Architecture. 5) The afternoon saw heavy rain and almost gale force wind gusts. The storm had subsided a bit by the time I was in a taxi to Logan. 6) My flight back to D.C. was delayed about 40 minutes. We took flight into clearing skies. 7) An aerial view of Northern Virginia--a reassuring sight. 8) I arrived home to a happy family and Cianna's first art collage!

- mike lee - wheaton, md

With breaks for networking and a chinese dinner, teams consisting of a mix of students and corporate lab sponsors worked all afternoon and evening on project concepts and rapid prototypes.

- mike lee - cambridge, ma

I'm taking work colleagues Lynn and Denise by the Frank Gehry-designed Stata Center here at MIT. In addition to the common mouth open gaga response to the radical architectural design, people usually whip out their cameras. Also on bright sunny days, one ends up squinting as you can see in the middle photo.

- mike lee - cambridge, ma

...to catch day's early sunlight. The clouds disapated over Philadelphia to deliver a sunny landing in Boston.

- mike lee

...to Washington Reagan Airport. I'm on a 7:45am flight to Boston for a sponsor event at the Media Lab.

- mike lee - washington, dc

Cianna enjoyed my favorite mushroom soup at Mosaic Cuisine & Cafe this morning. Her desert was some bites of mommy's Nutella crepe. Messy face = satisfied face.

- mike lee - wheaton, md

We put some feed on the kitchen window ledge and the Squirrel Mafia marched right up. From behind glass, I had the camera inches away from these guys as they munched. I also saw them spying my car keys.

- mike lee - wheaton, md

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While at the Apple Store today, I also picked up the new Belkin TuneTie for iPod which outfoxes the SmartWrap because it stores your earbuds as well as coils your cord.

I was out by myself on a shopping run to various places tonight.

For the first time, I saw Sparks at the liquor store closest to my house. I picked up a six because of tonight's new technology excitement.

Along with a pile of groceries, I brought home a late model Apple PowerBook G4/1.67 17" HR with 1.5gig ram and 120gb drive! I went with this pre-Intel chip machine because I don't want to wait for the equivalent, and go through months of early production bugs. Tonight I'm installing software upgrades, learning the new features of OS X Tiger, and loving the backlit keyboard.

While at the Apple Store today, I also picked up the new
- mike lee - wheaton, md

The morning doves enjoy some seed on our back porch until the Squirrel Mafia muscle in. Pix shot through binoculars.

- mike lee - wheaton, md