Where in the United States…

I’ve visited 38 states (76%).

Where in the World…

I’ve visited 22 countries (9.77%).

I’ve been looking to find a site to do this for a while now, I finally found one I liked! I’m using Douwe Osinga’s sites to Create your own visited map of The United States and Create your own visited map of The World. I also thought about using World66 and TripIt.

I gave three presentations (2009 Technology for Education Workshop, Microsoft Research India and IEEE Computer Society Bangalore Section) while in India, basically the same one–but in three different durations. First was 20 minutes, then 5 minutes and then an hour. Needless to say by the third one, I had things down pat.

My presentation to the IEEE-CS Bangalore Section was also the best presentation of the three–I was able to spend the time to present the material, and got great questions from the audience. I’m really annoyed at myself that I didn’t record the presentation, it would have made a great slidecast.

I’m embedding the first presentation, the one with a slidecast, below.

So I was updating a spreadsheet where I keep track of the states I’ve visited the other day… I’m now up to 40 (out of the 50 plus the District of Columbia). I got a couple of the states on a trip to Maine in 2007 and also on my drive from Logan, UT to Lexington, MA earlier this year.

Map Source: Wikipedia

States I've Visited

I’m still missing: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota and Vermont.

Of the 40 I’ve spent at least one night there (usually in a hotel) in all but Iowa, Montana and New Hampshire, where I was just driving through.

Photo Credit: Brandon

Mexico Hotel Power Outlet

In Mexico, the one’s I’ve seen accept European un-grounded and American grounded and un-grounded plugs. In China, the one’s I’ve seen accept European un-grounded, American un-grounded plugs. At right is a photo of the plugs in Mexico. Unfortunately I didn’t take a photo of the ones in my China hotels.

In Mexico, because of their proximity to the U.S. and the likelihood that all American electric items work there, the outlets probably do accept both ~120V-60Hz and ~220V-50Hz electrical items. I didn’t check in China, but even if the wall outlets only accept items that run at ~220V-50Hz such as laptop power adapters and shavers, which come capable of operating at multiple frequencies, it’s still a plus. In both cases for Europeans and American’s that’s one less adapter to *have* to carry around.

I just wish that countries in Europe adopted the same plug. Though probably they’d have dumb Americans (mostly) plugging in items that won’t work with the local electrical systems and burn out their devices or something.

As an aside, the Chinese also have great power strips that accept both European and U.S. plugs–since they make most of the goods for the world anyway, why aren’t they exporting those things as well???

The first, the ability to de-select a floor. Say you enter the elevator and hit floor 15, but decided you really wanted 17. In most elevators you’ll have to stop on the 15th floor, wait for the door to open and close, and then proceed. In this elevator, you could simply press the 15 button to de-select the floor. Rocket Science!

Credit: Brandon

Deselect Button in Elevator (5.5MB, MOV)

The second, the elevator said it was “Full” when it had reached maximum capacity. No buzzing horns, no random stops. The elevator clearly communicated it was full! (I wasn’t on the elevator, so it’s not because *I* weigh too much.)

(A brief aside about Iowa. The first trip I was supposed to make as NEEDS Project Manager in 1995 was to visit Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. I never got to make that trip because I got sick. Nor have I had the opportunity to visit Iowa since then. So yesterday’s drive through Iowa, you could say, was 14 years in the making.)

I made it out out of Utah, through Wyoming (which was relatively pretty) and about a halfway through Nebraska. Thankfully my Nebraska driving yesterday was done in the dark so the “flatness” will be all new to me today! For about half of the time in Wyoming there wasn’t any snow on the ground, and the other half had maybe an inch or two. All the way through Wyoming and Nebraska the wind has been blowing like crazy. And there was a hairy 50 mile stretch on the eastern side of Wyoming before Laramie with ice on the road and blowing snow that slowed me up.

I spent the night in Kearney, NE in a hotel that had a full parking lot. (And the other hotels around have full lots too…I wonder what’s going on.)

Today’s Day 2. My goals are the eastern edge of Iowa or west of Chicago depending on the weather going through the area.