Category Archives: Personal

All things related to Michael Marotta. My main interests include food, mixed martial arts, music, news, health, design, and technology.

Embrace randomness – SXSW Themes

THEME 4: Embrace randomness ‘Go with the flow’ was definitely the best piece of advice I got for sxsw. It’s good to plan, but feel free to break that plan for a chance to go somewhere random with a random … Continue reading

Posted in All, Design and Technology, Personal | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

There is more to gain by giving it all away – SXSW Themes

THEME 3: There is more to gain by giving it all away Not exactly a theme of this year’s sxsw in particular, but of the whole blogger rooted culture that has grown sxsw to where it is now. The whole … Continue reading

Posted in All, Design and Technology, Personal | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Do you make happiness, dreams, or just kick ass? – SXSW Themes

THEME 2: Help people kick ass so they can reach their dreams. That’s how you create happiness. Make that your business and your life. Happiness The products and services we build have a wide array of goals. We think of … Continue reading

Posted in All, Design and Technology, Personal, User experience design | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Left Godaddy for Bluehost, never happier!

I finally got so sick of how slowly my pages were loading when hosted on Godaddy I made the switch to a new hosting company.  I went with Bluehost because 1) it was listed on the wordpress.org suggested web hosts, … Continue reading

Posted in All, Personal, User experience design | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Digital Camera Shopping and Comparison Widgets

After about 7 years with my trusty Sony Cybershot I decided it was time to retire it for something new and also get my Mom to make the jump from film to digital, too. The biggest annoyance with my old … Continue reading

Posted in All, Design and Technology, Personal, User experience design | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Back from SXSW, favorite quotes

I’m back from SXSW Interactive today and am feeling quite delusional from the lack of sleep and 5 days of hearing great ideas and meeting amazing people. I think the best part of the conference was just being around such … Continue reading

Posted in All, Design and Technology, Personal, User experience design | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Planning your visit to SXSW

This Friday will be my first time at the South By Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSW). I’ve been to a couple other conferences but this is by far the largest. It looks like it’s going to be a blast in Austin. … Continue reading

Posted in All, Design and Technology, Music, Personal, User experience design | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Dreaming with a broken heart

When you’re dreaming with a broken heart The waking up is the hardest part You roll outta bed and down on your knees And for the moment you can hardly breathe Wondering was she really here? Is she standing in … Continue reading

Posted in All, Personal | Leave a comment

What gets you up in the morning

I was recently asked a really simple question that I had no answer for, ‘What wakes you up in the morning?’. It’s one of those things you’d think everyone has figured out since we all seem to be getting out … Continue reading

Posted in All, Personal | 1 Comment

3D Patient Records for Dentistry paper published in JADA!

After about a year of waiting, my senior project exploring 3D Patient Records for Dentistry has been published as the cover story in the Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA)! I had no idea our work would end up … Continue reading

Posted in All, Design and Technology, Health, Personal, User experience design | 2 Comments

Microsoft HealthVault and its third party user experience

Microsoft is shaking up the consumer health technology landscape today with their launch of HealthVault. The site allows anyone to sign up and store and share all of your health information and the health information of your family (even pets). … Continue reading

Posted in All, Design and Technology, Health, News, User experience design | 1 Comment

Emotional transparency

Reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Blink” recently really gave me great appreciation for the power of emotions and instant “gut” thinking. If you haven’t read the book, the basis is that our unconcious minds are able to process through extremely large … Continue reading

Posted in All, Personal | Leave a comment