Currently in Pittsburgh, PA for NIME 2009, a packed 3-day conference featuring the cutting edge of musical interface design (pdf program). This afternoon featured some neat robotics with Shimon, the mechanical marimba player, and writing instruments for sound control from the folk at MIT's Responsive Environments group.

En route here, we stopped off for a few days in New York. This gave us the opportunity to visit the great people at Eyebeam, whose hospitality was unrivalled (though it did help to inadvertently wander in during their weekly open-studio hours). We also caught the superb Tangled Alphabet exhibitions at MOMA, followed by Sophie Calle's stunning "Take Care Of Yourself" at the Paula Cooper Gallery. One nine-hour drive later, the sheer verticality of New York has given way to Pennsylvania's expansive forests and rolling hills. Driving through Squirrel Hill Tunnel on Interstate 376 was a highlight; $25 tolls, less so.

Now on CMU's wireless so will again be checking email sporadically.

The Register reports today that Barack Obama is to nominate Julius Genachowski, net neutrality advocate and his campaign's tech advisor, as the next head of the FCC. As the body responsible for regulating all communications in the US, including internet traffic, this is critical to the debate over network neutrality and should hopefully make these regulations a reality, securing the openness of information that has thus far characterised the net (though undoubtedly the debate will rage on).

Though net neutrality is less of a big deal in the UK due to the larger marketplace for ISPs that the average consumer has to select from, there's a good chance that the knock-on effects of this scenario will have ripples over here, as this article suggests. It's certainly a step forward for America's current fence-sitting communications policies.

What will happen to such travesties as the "PATRIOT" Act, dirtily slipped through Congress in the wake of 9/11 and enabling all manner of novel underhanded surveillance techniques, remains to be seen...