updates @ m.blog

I didn’t actually get it (unlike email, most IM systems have no delivery confirmation, and client/server sync issues are unfortunately quite common).
You have a history of sending me and my team annoying queries that are a waste of our time, so I’m going to pretend the above happened and hope you figure out the “solution” […]

So apparently some nosey blogger finally discovered Flickr’s dirty little secret — that we’re deviously adjusting the color and sharpness of people’s photographs to make them look better. But that just scratches the surface of the sophisticated image-enhancing algorithm we use. The full details below the jump.

Pinky and blue-y!

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }
.flickr-yourcomment { }
.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }
.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

Lost Sensations, originally uploaded by | HD |.
Woo:
“Creative Director Jenny Lam expanded the search to Flickr and contacted people who took really interesting pictures, asking them, “So, how would you like one of your photos […]

If you looked at my Flickr profile in the past few days, you may have noticed a small change I made…

Too busy to post a proper announcement! Short version that doesn’t reveal anything sensitive: I’m thrilled to be taking my areas of research expertise and applying them towards strategic operations to help shape […]

I’ve been too lazy to make a full blog post about this, but I have to link to it sometime. I’m officially yet another degree overeducated, and have ended my career at U.C. Berkeley. You can read the “award winning” (no, really) thesis Jen and I produced on this site, but I’d […]

IM transcript with an old East Coast friend who randomly met a recent West Coast friend of mine:
(23:04:07) Jeffrey Crouse: did your friend tell you how we discovered that we both knew you?
(23:04:41) M. Rothenberg: i dont think so, she just mentioned that she had met you.
(23:06:06) Jeffrey Crouse: well she had mentioned that she […]

Out of context quote of the day:
“One of the great things about my thesis is that it has AJAX.”
- Cameron Marlow
Sorry, Cam. :-)

paul dourish has a posse, originally uploaded by mroth.

Paul Dourish put the smackdown at CHI2006, in on one of the most important papers for the CHI community in long time, in which he succinctly identified the many problems the “implications for design” model has caused for sociotechnical research.
Therefore, I made him one of those ubiquitous […]

This amuses me way too much (especially as someone doing research on communication backchannels):
First, what’s with all the goddamn Apple-toting blogging hipster bullshit during the talks? The constant clicking of tiny silver keys is driving several of us batshit insane. If you’re that bored, go out in the frigging hall to compose your epic screed […]

Junk mail gets as sleazy as email spam! I wonder what percentage of people are tricked into opening something like this?

One reason aggregated photostreams from your friends on Flickr are neat: the same sunset, captured by people on opposite sides of the San Francisco Bay. A happy coincidence.
Photostream aggregation as a method to keep up to date with friends&family is fairly compelling to me. While I’m not going to constantly ask all […]

One of the perils of working at a tech company…

I have lots of mobile devices for testing various things (the one second to the left runs Linux, believe it or not). Someone needs to invent me some bigger pockets.
As Russell recently pointed me at, the numbers for this year are a staggering 500 million […]

Posted for a friend who wanted to know what my coffee setup was at home:

Pasquini Livia 90 espresso machine
Mazzer Mini coffee grinder
Ergo Packer tamper from David Schomer’s excellent Vivace Roasteria in Seattle.

Yes, I’m that big of an espresso nerd. Yes, that cost more than my laptop. Yes, it’s 100% worth it to be […]

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of seeing my good friend Jake Appelbaum speak at Webzine2005.
I met Jake at Defcon some years ago, and we eventually became close friends. When I moved to the Bay Area, Jake was the only friend I had who lived in the area, and he stepped up to […]