Kendall Giles

I've uploaded Part 1 Chapter 6 of Beowulf.

Technorati Tags: book, culture

I've just been appointed to a research position with the Human Language Technology Center for Excellence (HTLCOE) at Johns Hopkins University.

The purpose of the Center is to:

focus on advanced technology for automatically analyzing a wide range of speech, text and document image data in multiple languages.

I am looking forward to this!

Technorati Tags: academia, security, technology

For some time now I have been on frequent travel. You know what this means - quick meals from the drive-through window, not enough "good for you" foods and drinks, exposure to lots of other people on the run and sometimes sick with a cold or flu, lack of a good night's sleep, and a difficulty in getting enough exercise. While pushups are great, and can be done anywhere, I also wanted a little something more than a pushup or situp.

I thought about bringing around some kettlebells, but those aren't very portable, and I didn't want them flying around the car in case there was an accident. But after looking around for a bit, I took a chance on an inexpensive and portable chin-up / pull-up bar, called the Creative Fitness Door Gym.

After a quick assembly, I was actually quite impressed. It rests on the frame of a door - no nails or screws or glue needed - it takes about one second to remove it from the door, leaving no marks. Yet it is very sturdy and allows for as many chin-ups as you could ever possibly want to do. With it you can do pull-ups using multiple grips - with your palms facing away from you, palms facing towards you, and palms facing each other. Moreover, the bar also can be placed on the floor, allowing you to do deep pushups. When I am done and have to hit the road, I throw it in the back of the car.

Note that the image on Amazon does not do the product justice - here it is on a door frame:

Technorati Tags: fitness, review

When I started my new job, I found myself getting into a routine - on my way in to the office I would stop by one of those coffee shops on the corner to grab a large cup of wake-up. This would last me until early afternoon, whereupon I would go again to get more coffee to see me through the rest of the day. Now, these coffee shops tend to serve good coffee, but you pay for the ambience, and after a while my routine started to lighten my wallet a bit too much.

In a search for alternatives, I tried carrying coffee with me from home, but the container was not large enough to see me through the entire day. So I decided to buy a small coffee maker, but, from past experience, I knew that most did not heat the water enough to make a good cup of coffee, and the burner on the bottom tended to scorch the coffee left sitting in the pot.

The Zojirushi EC-BD15 Fresh Brew Thermal Carafe Coffee Maker met and exceeded both of my criteria. The water is heated enough to make a really good cup of coffee - as good as I was getting in that coffee shop on the corner - and because it keeps the coffee in a thermal carafe, rather than using a burner, the coffee does not get burned. It is also safer not having a burner hot plate, since I don't have to worry about accidently leaving the burner on when I leave the office at night.

The thermal carafe keeps the coffee hot for hours - at the end of the day my coffee is still hot enough, for me. It is also just the right size - when I finish drinking a carafe's worth of coffee, I know it must be time to go home. I also like the stainless-steel cafe and coffee maker styling.

There are many more expensive coffee makers out there, but for the price, I have been very happy with the quality of the unit and the quality of the coffee it makes. Also, my productivity is up, and my wallet is happier too.

Zojirushi EC-BD15 Fresh Brew Thermal Carafe Coffee Maker
$89.00
Available from Amazon

Technorati Tags: review

I've uploaded Part 1 Chapter 7 of Beowulf.

I've uploaded Part 1 Chapters 8 and 9 of Beowulf.