December 2007 Archives

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

When we all countdown to the New Year, chances are we will be watching the Times Square Ball descend. However, this year, the famed ball is going green and uses as much electricity as ten toasters!

Here are some more tech specs:

- 6ft ball
- 1,100 lbs
- 9,576 light-emitting diodes
- the LEDs are more than twice as bright as the previous bulbs
- capable of creating a palette of 16m colors
- $1.1 million in cost
- 672 crystal triangular panels
- 9,576 lights will substantially increase the brightness to more than 625,000 lumens

Don Reisinger of CNET Blogs has made 5 predictions for 2008.

Prediction 1: The Wii falls flat on its face

Prediction 2: The death of DRM

Prediction 3: Google takes the cell phone industry by storm

Prediction 4: The Rise of IPTV

Prediction 5: Apple gains significant OS market share

The one prediction I take issue with is prediction number 1. Here is what he has to say:

As I've said here before, video game sales dictate the winners and losers in this industry and as far as I can tell, the Wii is lacking on this front. If you were to take an objective look at the upcoming release calendar for all three consoles, chances are you won't say the Wii has the strongest lineup. Sure, it has Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but where are the games that people can play alone on multiple occasions?

Unfortunately, Reisinger does not understand the purpose of the Wii. The Wii is not meant to be played alone.

"Wii would like to play." Wii is pronounced "we" not "me." All of the commercials featuring the Wii show multiple people playing the Wii. In fact, my family brought the Wii during family Christmas visits this year, and the Wii was a godsend. Everyone was playing, laughing, and having a great time. From my grandparents to my brother, the Wii had my family engaged and entertained. XBOX and PS3 can't do that, but Wii can. Wii cannot be judged by traditional video game standards because it has deviated from that standard. The Wii does not target 20 year old men but rather families. From senior citizen retirement homes to cruise ships to the family room, the Wii presents versatility to the video gaming industry. My prediction is that the Wii will continue to dominate the industry into 2008.

In a recent article in The New York Times, blogging is a major marketing tool that is low cost and high return for small businesses. However, according to a poll taken by American Express, only 5% of small businesses have a blog. I found Denali Flavors blog to be the most interesting. Denali makes ice cream flavors and is most famous for moose tracks. In order to get the word out about their ice cream, Denali started a blog, but the blog was about personal finance called Free Money Finance. John Nardini, who is in charge of marketing and the corporate blogs, started Free Money Finance because personal finance blogs were the most popular blogs on the Internet. Denali hosts the blog and exclusively advertises moose track ice cream to the 4,500 daily visitors. The blog costs about $400 per year to run.

I think that this marketing approach is very creative and effective. Blogs are very low cost and can be very informative to potential customers, employees, and employers. If done correctly, a blog can be a great marketing tool. The Schreyer Honors College has a blog that is mainly used as a marketing tool to bring in potential students. The dean and other students write on this blog about the daily occurrences at the SHC. Although often sugar coated, the blog does provide some insight into college life. While this blog did not make or break my decision to enroll in the honors college when I was in high school, the engage blog is a low cost way to advertise the college.

The medium of YouTube has exploded recently. Roger Clemens, Queen Elizabeth, and Mike Huckabee have used YouTube to convey their messages to the world. Clemens responds and objects to the accusations made by the Mitchell Report, and Queen Elizabeth spreads holiday cheer to her subjects. Mike Huckabee uses Chuck Norris to spread the word of his campaign for president. YouTube has become the universal medieval public square where people can be heard and hear others. YouTube is just more proof that the Internet is bringing democracy to the users of the world. Maybe, these users will greet the Internet and websites such as YouTube as liberators.

As the Christmas season is upon us, I wish you all a merry Christmas! See you next year! Here is a card from Stephen Colbert to celebrate:

In a recent article in Technology Bites, Microsoft Office Live Workspace is reviewed. Office Live Workspace is a reaction to the popular online document services of Google Docs and Zoho. Overall, Microsoft is given a good review. However, in order to edit online documents, users have to download a plug-in for MS Office. While this plug-in destroys the reason why Google Docs and Zoho are so popular (free and editable with ease), this decision by Microsoft makes sense. MS Office is a source of big bucks for Microsoft, and the software giant would not relinquish its prized possession freely.

I have not gotten the chance to try Google Docs, Zoho, or Office Live Workspace. The need for online editable documents just has not been an issue for me yet. I do believe though that I will be using some form of this kind of software as the group work done in the College of Information Sciences and Technology will push me in this direction. I better get ready.

When Team Multivac put our video Celebrity Jeopardy on YouTube, I never thought anyone would see it, but so far our video has reached the 300 viewer mark (or almost at 298). Just goes to prove if you put it on YouTube, people will watch.

Check out our video again here:

The Onion does it again.

YouTube Debate Becomes Website's First Ignored Video

The video debates received one comment, two stars, and zero favorites.

Who knows, maybe one day you will create an award winning slide-show presentation like Al Gore.

Gore Wins Oscar, Nobel Peace Prize For Slide-Show Presentation

The Nobel Committee was deeply moved by Gore's employment of multi-image animation.

Finally, the official release of The Dark Knight trailer. It's looking pretty solid. Click here to see more and download the trailer for yourself.

In a recent article in The New York Times, Google appears to be getting ready to rumble with Microsoft. The future of the computing world rests in the different philosophies of these two companies. Google believes that 90% of computing will reside in a Web-based cloud on remote servers in faraway data centers, accessible over the Web by an array of wired and wireless devices. Microsoft sees a Web future as well, but one whose center of gravity remains firmly tethered to its desktop PC software. The article does a great job of creating a battle between these two companies who don't even acknowledge that they are at war. Then why did Google release Google Docs? According to Mr. Schmidt, the C.E.O. at Google,

“For most people, computers are complex and unreliable, given to crashing and afflicted with viruses. If Google can deliver computing services over the Web, then it will be a real improvement in people’s lives."

Well, these two companies have massive amounts of resources that will guide the future of the computing industry. Whether they wish to acknowledge it or not, they are in direct competition with each other. Their philosophies about the future of computing are different, and there is where the battle will start. I look forward to seeing the innovations that Microsoft and Google both come up with. When two companies like this are competing against each other, the customer has much to gain.

Beams of light and modern optical networks send 10 gigabits of information per second. However, the processing speed is struggling to catch up. Daniel Gauthier, at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and his colleagues have demonstrated a possible solution. The information in a beam of light can be stored for a while by converting it into a sound signal, then reading it back out again as light, researchers have found. The process, which can be done in commercially-available optical fibers, could be used to help make computer processing more efficient in future. Here is what they discovered:

They first send optical data as a stream of light pulses into a short piece of standard optical fibre. Into the other end of the fibre they send a different short pulse: the 'write' pulse. When the two sets of pulses collide, they interfere, and an interference pattern is set up in the fibre with areas of high and low intensity. This interference pattern in turn affects the physical properties of the fibre, setting up an acoustic wave because of a phenomenon called electrostriction.

As the light pulse leaves the fibre, the acoustic wave with all its inherited information lags behind: the speed of light in the fibre, at some 200 million metres per second, far exceeds the more sluggish 5,000 metres per second of sound. “The acoustic wave is essentially stationary over the duration of our experiment,” says Gauthier, whose work is published in Science 1.

To get the information from the acoustic wave out again, a third light pulse, the 'read' pulse, is sent in. When it reaches the part of the fibre being affected by the acoustic wave, the light scatters in such a way as to regain the information that was left behind by the initial pulse. The newly-formed data pulse leaves the fibre, resuming the journey in the same direction as the original pulse, taking the same information with it.

The power needed for their discovery is high and would evaporate some systems. However, with a little money and time, the future of this technology looks bright. It is absolutely incredible to me that this is even possible. Although light and sounds are both forms of energy, converting light into sound just seems to be a little crazy but very cool.

Congratulations to the Penn State Women's Volleyball team on their second national championship! It was fun to watch the team battle all season, and I can't wait to see what happens next year.

Russ Rose (Head Coach) ­ On how much time is left in his coaching career.

"I don't really know. At a time like this I'm excited for the players and for all the fans and having won a championship before, I just know how excited all the Penn Staters are from around the country because I hear from so many of them. I had a 100 and something text messages before I got to the locker room, and I don't have a text messaging plan. So that's a problem. I'm not looking to say Oethat's what I wanted to do.' I wanted my kids to play hard. If we had to start practice tomorrow I'd go in there and chew on some ass and get after them again because that's what I do."

Watch out Wikipedia! In a recent article in The New York Times, plans of a new service by Google called Knol has been announced.

Although Knol has not been released to the public, it is currently being tested by Google. Knol will be different than Wikipedia in many ways. Instead of having one article written by many authors, Knol will feature different articles that can only be edited by the respective author. While Wikipedia is a non-profit organization, Google plans to make money by placing ads throughout the articles. Authors can choose whether or not to have ads on their articles but can also reap some of the monetary rewards of advertising.

I found this section of the article very interesting:

While many technology analysts and bloggers noted that Knol appeared to be a direct competitor to Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, that site’s founder, shrugged off the potential challenge.

Mr. Wales said that Google’s service would encourage competing, opinionated articles on any topic, whereas Wikipedia strived for objectivity and had a single article per topic that represented the collective knowledge of its authors.

I completely agree with Mr. Wales. I believe Wikipedia has the right idea, although there are some flaws with the online encyclopedia. Knol seems to be motivated by money, which detracts from its sole purpose of providing information to the masses. I guess I am just confused. In IST 110H for the last project, the consensus amongst the class was that the Pennsylvania State University Library should move into Second Life because it won't make any money. This reasoning is baffling to me as a library's purpose is not to make money. Does the PSU library make any money now? No, they rely on donations, just like Wikipedia. To me, knowledge is best presented in a unobstructed environment which is solely created for the knowledge itself.

By now, you know that I am a huge Batman fan. After all, in borrowing a line from Batman Begins, "whoever dresses up as a bat must have some issues."

This weekend, with the release of I Am Legend, the theatrical trailer of The Dark Knight was shown for the first time as well as the first seven minutes of The Dark Knight in IMAX showings of the I Am Legend. The theater in downtown State College has decided to close and not show I Am Legend. What's a college kid to do? God bless YouTube. Although Warner Brothers have been scouring the Internet throughout the day and taking down videos, I was able to see the trailer.

As a Batman fanatic, I am really really really really really excited. If the trailer is representative of the movie, there is no doubt that The Dark Knight will be the best Batman film ever produced. After seeing Batman Begins, I remember feeling like I just got out of a rollercoaster. After watching the trailer for The Dark Knight, I am starting to see the crest of that first hill.

However, there is still a long way to go until July 18, 2008. However, I am sure that the good people who are advertising for The Dark Knight will keep me occupied. God Bless the Internet! So far, they have done a spectacular job of marketing the movie and building the hype with a host of websites such as the Joker's new catch phrase: whysoserious.com. Also, around two weeks before the movie, a six episode anime DVD is going to be released that will fill in the gap between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. The anime is going to be directed by Bruce Timm, who was paramount in the production and creation of my favorite representation of Batman, Batman: The Animated Series. Whenever I think of Batman, I see Timm's Batman with Kevin Conroy's voice.

Also, the best part is that as the movie gets closer and closer, more and more photos, websites, and trailers will be released. Enjoy what I have found so far.

Here are the international posters. I wish I had one of these in my dorm room!

Here are two more posters of the upcoming movie, which are basically focused on the Joker:

Here are two sweet pictures of the Dark Knight:

Here is one sick picture of the Joker:

And finally, here is the trailer that came out in the summer. The new trailer is going to be released officially by Warner Brothers on Monday.

Check this out. In a recent article on ThinkGeek.com, the product called the Ambient Orb is explained. According to the article, the Ambient Orb is:

a device that slowly transitions between thousands of colors to show changes in the weather, the health of your stock portfolio, or if your boss or friend is on instant messenger. It is a simple wireless object that unobtrusively presents information. Imagine if you had to go to your computer and type in your zip code whenever you wanted to check what time it was. Your important information should be as accessible as looking at a clock, now the Ambient Orb can make a variety of information just a glance away.

Take for example the Stock Market. The orb will glow green if stocks are going up and red if stocks are going down. The orb will also pulsate if there is a major change as well. In addition to monitoring the stock market, the orb can monitor many other things such as the weather, website traffic, pollen count, friends on IM, and the available space on your hard drive. The Orb is completely independent and operates uses a national wireless internet connection. Here are some of the specs:

- LED lighting that can produce thousands of color combinations

- Orb can also produce color pulses

- The Orb is made of glass

- Pre-configured to monitor the Dow - can be reconfigured online or through an 800 number

- Premium content available for about $1/week

- Does not require a computer, phone or internet connection

- Three brightness level settings

- Includes power supply, power cord, and glass Orb

- Can monitor: Stock market, weather, pollen count, IM buddies, or custom data

- One-year manufaturer warranty

The Ambient Orb looks pretty cool and would be an interesting item to have in an office or dorm room. The orb is a great idea and very creative.

Download file

IST 110H had a dance party in Second Life yesterday, and I think the party went very well. Many avatars came to the party, and the party itself was actually fun. It was interesting to see everyone's costumes and dance moves. Kenton and Garrett did a great job with the streaming music. To see what I made for the party, click here. I even won a contest! Rock on, Batman!

That's right. IST just got a van! In a recent article in the Daily Collegian, the College of Information Sciences and Technology recently purchased a $1 million van called NERV. NERV stands for Network Emergency Response Vehicle and was created by Cisco Systems. The van has already been used in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the fires in San Diego. Why was NERV developed? NERV was developed as "technology we know works in a disaster situation," said Bob Browning, senior manager for tactical operations support at Cisco. NERV includes voice-over Internet Protocol (IP), radio over IP, video over IP, a hi-definition videoconferencing system and a wireless mesh incident network. So why did IST buy a $1 million van? "The goal would be to give our students an opportunity to put their hands on technology," Foley said. "It would put Penn State in the lead in developing extreme events and security science." Foley said the extreme events laboratory would enable students to explore security scenarios involving potential terrorist targets like the Breazeale Nuclear Reactor, the Bryce Jordan Center and Beaver Stadium.

While $1 million for a van may seem a little steep, I think that NERV was a good investment for the college. Having a van such as NERV does put Penn State in the lead in security science, and the van will allow IST and SRA students to gain valuable experience working with this technology. My hope is that the college just doesn't let the van sit around but actively use it throughout the campus and Centre County.

This maybe one of the weirdest videos I have ever seen on YouTube. Check out the Norton Fighter from Symantec Antivirus fight the evil Botlas. This would have made an awesome video for the YouTube project. It's great how they fit in information about their product. Enjoy!

Guess what Merriam-Webster Inc selected as the word of the 2007? Can I get a w00t w00t? That's right, the word of this year is w00t, with two zeros. Here is the explanation from Webster.com:

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year 2007 Thousands of you took part in the search for Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year for 2007, and the vast majority of you chose a small word that packs a pretty big punch. The word you've selected hasn't found its way into a regular Merriam-Webster dictionary yet—but its inclusion in our online Open Dictionary, along with the top honors it's now been awarded—might just improve its chances. This year's winning word first became popular in competitive online gaming forums as part of what is known as l33t ("leet," or "elite") speak—an esoteric computer hacker language in which numbers and symbols are put together to look like letters. Although the double "o" in the word is usually represented by double zeroes, the exclamation is also known to be an acronym for "we owned the other team"—again stemming from the gaming community.

Merriam-Webster's #1 Word of the Year for 2007 based on votes from visitors to our Web site:

1. w00t (interjection)
expressing joy (it could be after a triumph, or for no reason at all); similar in use to the word "yay"
w00t! I won the contest!

Submitted by: Kat from Massachusetts on Nov. 30, 2005 23:18

2. facebook
3. conundrum
4. quixotic
5. blamestorm
6. sardoodledom
7. apathetic
8. Pecksniffian
9. hypocrite
10. charlatan

w00t w00t indeed! w00t just shows the enormous amount of influence text messaging and technology has on the way we speak. But let's not forget last year's winner and my personal favorite:

1. truthiness (noun)
1 : "truth that comes from the gut, not books" (Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," October 2005)
2 : "the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true" (American Dialect Society, January 2006)

In a recent article from Computer World, the concept of crowd sourcing is explored. According to Jeff Howe of Crowdsourcing.com, crowd sourcing can be defined as:

"the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call."

Thanks to likes of Wikpedia and YouTube, users are clamoring to put their ideas out onto the web, and companies can gain from that by hosting programming competitions to fit their needs. "It's an incredible virtual workforce that is literally always on task," Ken Alfred of Constellation Energy says. "It's almost like a sport, where people see each other as competitors, and that's what drives what we've seen as high-quality code."

While the benefits of crowd sourcing for companies are saving time and money, they must also be careful to not let the inmates run the asylum and make sure that the advice they are getting comes from a diversified group. Also, the problem of intellectual property comes into play for programmers who do not necessarily win the competition but whose ideas are used by the companies anyway.

I think crowd sourcing is an interesting concept and indicates a further economic trend of globalization. So much of what is being done in technology is through collaborative efforts and sharing. I wonder how crowd sourcing will affect the job market in the years to come in the IT world. Between out sourcing, open sourcing, and crowd sourcing, it's certainly hard to tell.

Believe it or not, the last day of the semester is December 14th, this Friday. Tempus fugit! Throughout the course of this blog, I have discussed many subjects dealing with technology ranging from the blogosphere to social networking to virtual worlds to Google. Although I have connected these stories to my life, I have really not discussed my experiences so far at Penn State as a freshman in Information Sciences and Technology.

Ever since I attended my first open house for the College of Information Sciences and Technology back in my junior year, I knew that I wanted to come to Penn State and major in IST. In high school, I became very interested in computer programming and saw IST as the perfect place to develop my skills.

So far, IST has done that for me. Having taken IST 110H with Dr. Andrea Tapia, I have been exposed to many different kinds of technologies that I would have otherwise never have even known about. Sure, I have used Facebook, watched videos on YouTube, and heard about the virtual world of Second Life. However, this class taught me why people use Facebook and other social networks, how to make a video to post on YouTube, and how to explore the possibilities of Second Life. Before this class, I never really knew what a blog was. Now, I can consider myself as one of the bloggers.

IST 110H has also taught me skills outside of the realm of technology. The biggest lesson was how to work as a team. I believe that my team worked very well together, and I was very fortunate to work with Garrett, Corinne, and DJ. Team Multivac can definitely be proud of the work we have completed this semester.

My first semester has gone very well. I am glad I decided to go to Penn State. I could not see myself anywhere else.

In a recent article in the New York Times, some airlines are planning to offer in-flight Internet service to their passengers. Jet Blue Airways, American Airlines, Virgin American, and Alaska Airlines all plan to offer their passengers Internet services within the next couple of days to the next couple of months. “I think 2008 is the year when we will finally start to see in-flight Internet access become available, but I suspect the rollout domestically will take place in a very measured way,” said Henry Harteveldt, an analyst with Forrester Research. But “in a few years time, if you get on a flight that doesn’t have Internet access, it will be like walking into a hotel room that doesn’t have TV.” The airlines’ goal is to turn their planes into the equivalent of a wireless hot spot once the aircraft reaches its cruising altitude. It will not be available on takeoff and landing.

I believe that this is a great idea for airlines. For the business travelers, Internet connections are a major plus as they can stay connected while on the go. Jet Blue Airways is offering this service for free, but the other airlines plan on charging a fee for the service.

For the dance party that IST 110H is holding in Second Life, I have created a bar where avatars can take a break from dancing, sit, relax, and talk with other avatars. Because Joe Paterno is the bartender, this bar only serves the very best: a cup of joe! Creating Joe Paterno took some time. I modeled my Joe Paterno after the Joe Paterno statue outside of Beaver Stadium. Scripts for the floating text and giving objects as well as notecards were not too hard to find. Check out the ICT library that Garrett investigated! Also, don't forget to check out the dance party in Istania on this Thursday from 6pm - 9pm!

In a recent article in the Daily Collegian, the Google gas pump may be coming to a gas station near you. New gas pumps are being made with Internet connections and Google mapping services. Lost drivers can use the pumps for color maps and directions to local landmarks, hotels and restaurants, as programmed by the gas station's owner, which can then be printed out. The pumps will not display advertisements on the screen when customers look up directions, but gas stations will be able to earn extra money from merchants who would be allowed to include coupons on the maps customers can print out.

Having to ask for directions for some people is a blow to their ego. However, I don't really mind asking for directions, but I usually forget or misinterpret the directions. With gas pumps with Google Maps, I would never have to worry about being lost again. While this service is very convenient, I also think it is interesting how pervasive the Internet is in our lives. Gas pumps with Internet connectivity are insane but useful at the same time.

Check it out!

Overweight College Student Announces Plans To Wear Shorts, Sandals For Rest Of Year

STATE COLLEGE, PA—Kyle Norton stated that he would also forgo a winter coat and continue to don the same coffee-stained sweatshirt he has been wearing since mid-October.

In a recent article from Computer World, the net generation is explored. In his new book, Grown Up Digital, Tapscott revisits the so-called Net generation -- those born between the late 1970s and early 1990s -- to take at look at how they are already affecting the workplace with their unique attitudes and aptitudes. That book, due out late next year, will include data gleaned from a $4 million research study that included interviews with more than 11,000 of the 80 million people that make up the Net generation. According to Tapscott about our generation:

"These kids' brains are actually wired differently," Tapscott said. "Their IQs are up by all the measures we have. This is the smartest generation ever. They are highly motivated and bring with them a new kind of culture. They bring a new model of work and collaboration into the workforce that is better, results in higher performance and better innovation."

Companies have to adjust to what Tapscott calls Talent 2.0. The net generation craves the speed of instant messaging and mobile communication and is often bogged down by traditional business procedures.

Other suggestions from Tapscott's research for successfully engaging Net Generation workers include the following:

- Providing a healthy amount of project work, which has the intensive time frames and cyclical nature they prefer.
- Catering to employees' taste for speed by setting up quick (perhaps five-minute) opportunities for them to present their new ideas to management.
- Encouraging management to develop informal relationships with workers, where criticism and congratulations are accepted and invited by both.

I thought that this article was pretty interesting. We do not have to adjust to companies. Companies have to adjust to us. The Internet has changed the way we do business and who we are. We are the net generation. Who's next?

Gotta go but you don't know where the nearest facility is? That is where the mobile service MizPee comes in. The service will provide you with the nearest and cleanest bathroom in the area. Here is a little reason as to why MizPee, according to a blog post by MizPee co-founder Peter:

We know what you are thinking.

Where did you come up with such a:
Choose: a) Brilliant, b) Useful, c) Stupid idea? Correct answer is either a) or b) ofcourse! ☺

Well, Mizpee is the result of a number of things. The two founders, Dhana & I have been in the mobile industry for a combined 17 years (whoa!). So essentially, we live and breathe mobile every day of our lives.

But the real inspiration, if you can call it that, came from a visit to a public bathroom in a public building. (The Department of Homeland Security has asked that we do not reveal the name of the building or the city it is located.) The smell of the facilities was so bad that after only two minutes I had a splitting headache. I thought (or silently` screamed) “if I only knew where there was a clean toilet in this area that I could just walk in and use!” Given our backgrounds the rest followed easily.

You’re probably thinking: Dude, why not just ask someone on the street where a bathroom is?

Valid question.

Well, we ask you:
Will that person really know a close bathroom? (proximity is somewhat of a pressing issue where bathrooms are concerned) Will that person know if it is clean?

Will that person know if the building is open at that hour?

Will that person know if it has the facilities you need, e.g. diaper changing station?

We provide you all of this information and more.

Do try Mizpee for yourself and let us know what you think!

The Internet allows a lot of interesting ideas and unheard of business models. In my opinion, MizPee takes the urinal cake on this one.

Should Pennsylvania State University's library invest in Second Life?

Team Multivac strove to find the answer to this question by:

- Investigating the current libraries that exist in Second Life
- Finding what these libraries are getting out of Second Life
- Exploring external sources (sources outside of the realm of Second Life) that commented on the role of libraries in this virtual world
- Answering how much will this investment cost the library?

Current Libraries and the Return on Their Investment

In order to more accurately judge whether the Penn State University Libraries should invest in Second Life, Team Multivac decided to first explore a number of other library-related entities within Second Life, including Second Life branches of public libraries and libraries that don't even have a real-life presence, they exist solely within Second Life.

Garrett Miller chose to explore the latter. A "places" search for "Library" yielded the Information & Communications Technology Library. Their website can be found here.

The facade of the library.

The library's interior.

Some of the scripts this library offers.

The primary purpose of this location is to provide a resource for information regarding Second Life. Custom scripts are available, as well as a book entitled "The Top 20 Educational Spots in Second Life". Among these are Harvard Law School and Info Island, which is where the ICT library itself is located. Another interesting bit of information is "RL in SL", a list of real-life entities that have Second Life presences.

The library itself doesn't stand to gain much, it's a not-for-profit endeavor funded by contributions from users. While it may be limited, it certainly is an interesting place to explore.

Steven Dodge chose to investigate Cleveland Public Library's space on Second Life. On the Cleveland Public Library's homepage, the mission of the library is given:

To be the best urban library system in the country by providing access to the worldwide information that people and organizations need in a timely, convenient, and equitable manner.

In order to achieve this goal, the third largest public research library in the United States decided to open the doors of its online library on November 16, 2007. Steven recently visited the Cleveland Public Library to investigate.

There are nine places to visit at the Second Life Cleveland Public Library.

The Cleveland Public Library has the world largest chess repository. Therefore, the theme of chess is pervasive throughout the space. Steven started his journeys at the main library.

The Second Life version of the main library is very similar to the appearance of the actual building.

Outside, there is a sign that gives the history of the Cleveland Public Library on a notecard to the clicking avatar. Inside, the library shows off parts of its world renowned chess repository with signs of uploaded images of different kinds of chess boards and pieces. There are also signs that avatars can click on to receive notecards with more information about Austrian, Staunton, Export Indian, Italian Courtier, Blind man's, Medieval, Cantonese Export, Crusaders chessmen as well as chessmen dressed in simple religious attire.

The next place Steven decided to visit was the Reading Garden.

Like with the main museum, there is a sign where avatars can learn more about the Eastman Reading Garden via notecard. Inside, the reading garden was full of trees and flowers and ample places to sit. It seemed to be very relaxing and a great place to gather your thoughts.

The next place Steven visited was the amphitheater.

The amphitheater was well constructed and even included a popcorn maker that gives avatars free popcorn. However, the video that is supposed to play does not work. Steven suspects that this error is because the library just opened on Second Life and will be fixed in the future.

Steven visited the photo gallery next.

The photo gallery design into the shape of a camera was very creative. Once inside the lens, there were many signs adorned with pictures about sheet music in Ohio and specifically Cleveland. However, the signs do not provide notecards with more information about the specific sheet music. Because Steven is not an expert in the field of music, he was a little confused and more information would be helpful.

After his visit to the Photo Gallery, Steven visited the CLEVNET building.

Outside the building, there is a sign that gives the clicking avatar more information about what CLEVNET is. CLEVNET is Cleveland Public Library's online presence. The CLEVNET building resembles the normal office building. There are chairs, desks, and laptops, but that is it.

The other four places in the Cleveland Public Library's Second Life presence are all chess boards. These four playable chess boards are Mycenaean, Generic, Wonderland, and Hungarian-Russian chessboards.

Overall, Steven found Cleveland Public Library's space on Second Life to be very impressive. With nine places to visit, Steven thought that the space was vast but also complicated. Outside of the CLEVNET building, the rest of the Cleveland Public Library's space on Second Life was very interactive and informative. On the web, Cleveland Public Library has gotten the word out about their space. On the Second Life blog called InfoIsland, there was a blog post about the library's grand opening. On Cleveland Public Library's homepage, there was an announcement about their grand opening in Second Life, but no other information was provided.

From participating in Second Life, the Cleveland Public Library, or the People's University, takes one more step in fulfilling its objective of providing worldwide information. By having its own island, the library is gaining a reputation as one of the more innovative libraries in the nation as well as in the world. To truly capitalize its presence on Second Life, the library should in the future add more information about all kinds of subjects and become "best urban library system in the country."

D.J. Lingelbach explored a library similar to the Information & Communications Technology Library called the Free Script Library. Unlike other traditional libraries, this library did not provide a wealth of knowledge about the world, but provided users with a chance to obtain free scripts to run in Second Life. The building is quite small and has two floors. There is no way in or out of the building as it is completely enclosed. When an avatar is teleported to the Free Script Library, the first thing that an avatar will see is a giant wall of blocks saying "Free Script" with floating text to indicate what kind of script is offered.

D.J. walked around the building and explored both levels. D.J. discovered something useful: an index that displayed the different kinds of scripts that can be found in the library. The index was quite big, however, and only showed if the script was on the first floor or the second floor.

Instead of using the index, D.J. found something a little more useful. There was an object that pointed to the exact script that you are looking for. The only catch here was that the exact name of the script was required. D.J. searched for "Rotating Text" and the object pointed him exactly where he needed to go.

To take the script, one had to right click on the box and select "buy." Of course, since this is a "free" script library, the cost was L$0. Included with the script was a notecard with information about the script.

The library, in all, was very useful, and D.J. very much enjoyed it and believes that he will use it in the future. However, he did not think that the library was very lucrative for its creator. There were only a couple ways that the library was able to make any money.
One way was by selling some objects. These objects seemed to be more than simple scripts. Instead, they were already complete and ready to use.

The other way that the library could make money was through donations. Of course, being in Second Life, these donations were made in Lindens. In this respect, the library was similar to Wikipedia. The donations that are collected are to pay for the land and other costs of keeping up the project. There is a little jar where one can click to donate money. Actually, while looking at this jar, D.J. received a chat message saying that they still need to cover 85% of their anticipated costs for this month and encouraging him to donate.

Based on his findings, D.J. found that the Free Script Library to be very useful. It is very well organized and easy to use. However, the project is not very lucrative for its creator because there is not much money to be made. D.J. suggested charging a fee for downloading each script.

Corinne Bernstiel explored the State Library of Kansas on Second Life.

The first thing that Corinne noticed about this library is its crazy landscaping and one almost wonders what is in store for one’s avatar when one wanders inside.

Once inside the library however, it is reminiscent of a typical public library. There is a help desk on the first floor where an avatar can click for a link to the library’s website which has a listing of books and other useful information.

Throughout the library are posters for featured books that an avatar can click on. Once an avatar clicks on these books, a menu pops up giving him or her options, such as with this one where a avatar can go to the Wizard of Oz website and read the book online, go to a Wikipedia article on the book, or go to a biography of the article.

Corinne chose to read the book online and was pleasantly surprised to find the full version of the book conveniently linked through Second Life. She was originally doubtful of the functionality of a library on Second Life, however, once Corinne discovered this feature she was almost instantly sold on the idea.

External Sources

As a team, we were able to find two external sources from Second Life about the libraries in Second Life. One of these sources was from the blog post from the Digital Librarian entitled Our Communities, Our Virtual, Digital, and Physical Environments. In the post, jaf writes:

“My personal opinion is that libraries who have the resources to pursue futuristic research, especially with user interfaces, may find Second Life an interesting environment to explore, but I really don't see Second Life being an important environment that libraries need to partake in - at least, not at this time. Most of our users aren't in Second Life, and most aren't even interested in it.”

After visiting Cybrary City in Second Life, Kathryn Greenhill, a librarian for 17 years, wrote on her blog “Librarians Matter":

In academic libraries, we will soon have huge numbers of undergraduates who are used to this type of interface from gaming. They love it and understand it. To deliver the services where they are, we should understand it - and maybe learn to love it - pink hippos and all.

Cathal McCauley from the University College Dublin's Library considers library investigation into the medium of Second Life the next step from instant messaging and blogs:

“We’ve had instant messaging and blogs for quite some time now, so we thought that this virtual world might offer another useful compliment to the provision of traditional library services. We want to investigate the possibilities it might offer.”

From the world outside of Second Life, the consensus appears as though Second Life offers some opportunities to libraries. However, while a library would be primarily exploring Second Life, a library would be able to better connect with undergraduates who are increasingly being exposed to these kinds of virtual interfaces every day.

How much will this investment cost?

According to the Second Life, there are two options available to the library if it chooses to invest in Second Life. One of these options is buying an island. To buy an island in Second Life, it would cost the library $1,675 USD. However, a fifty percent discount is offered to academic institutions, so the price tag drops to $873.50. To maintain the island, there is a fee of $295 USD per month, and for premium accounts, which are needed to purchase land in Second Life, cost $6 USD per month per account. Therefore, if the Pennsylvania State University library wanted to buy an island and maintain the island for one year with a single premium account, the cost would be $4,485.50.

The second option would be to rent land from another organization, such as Cybrary City or Penn State Isles. The cheapest route for the library to go would be renting land from Penn State Isles. Joe Paterno has said, "You can't have a great university without a great library." Therefore, we believe that Penn State Isles would gladly have the university library. We have based this decision on the recent construction of the Virtual Palmer Museum adjacent from the sandbox in Istania. If the library would have to pay for any costs in Penn State lsle, it would be for land maintenance, which varies depending how much land the library uses. For the purposes of price comparison, we thought that the library would chose to build on 8,192 square meters of land. The land maintenance fee for this amount of land is $40 per month. Therefore, with one premium account, the second option would cost the library $552 per year.

Our recommendation to the Pennsylvania State University Library is to invest in Second Life but only on a trial basis. We believe that the library should also follow the second investment option and team up with Penn State Isles. A trial basis would allow the library to:

- Test the technological capabilities of the space
- Gauge the popularity of the space without spending too much money
- Have a symbiotic relationship with Penn State Isles

Testing the Technological Capabilities

We believe that by renting a small area of land, the library will be able to explore the opportunities available to the institution on a small scale. Like the Cleveland Public Library who shows off its chess repository, the library should incorporate a few of its aspects:
- The building's facade
- Its famous utopian collection
- Its Joe Paterno exhibit
- Its stuffed Nittany Lion
- A help desk
By incorporating all of these aspects of the library, the Second Life library can explore its true potential in the virtual world.

Measuring the Audience

However, in order to see if the Second Life library has achieved its true potential, the library needs to measure its reputation amongst members of the blogosphere and avatars within Second Life. We suggest that the library should create its own website or blog and allow readers to post comments about what they like or do not like about the library. In the Second Life library, a link to this website should be provided for an avatar to visit. In addition to creating this website, we also suggest that the library create surveys for the avatars who visit to take at the space, much like the surveys at Meteora, NOAA's space on Second Life. The library should also determine what the students and faculty think by asking classes who use Second Life such as IST 110 to take surveys. By gauging the library's reputation on Second Life, the library can determine if its presence in Second Life is beneficial and worth the investment.

Penn State Isles

By partnering with Penn State Isles, the library not only gains being a part of an established community in Second Life but also a wealth of knowledge from the avatars who built the Isles. These avatars will be able to provide the library with excellent advice as how to proceed in Second Life. By being a part of the Penn State Isles, the Isles benefits from having another major attraction on its space and receiving more visitors to the space because of the library.

In our travels in Second Life, Steven came across a poster on Health Info Island:

What will the Pennsylvania State University library become in the future? We recommend that the library try Second Life on a trial basis because through experimentation in Second Life, the library will be able to better understand this question and prepare for the future.

For the PowerPoint, please click the link below:
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In a recent blog post on Crave, the year 2008 will bring a massive data meltdown, or at least according to Subodh Bapat, a vice president in the eco-computing team at Sun Microsystems. "You'll see a massive failure in a year," Bapat said at a dinner with reporters on Monday. "We are going to see a data center failure of that scale." Company data centers have been pushed to their limits, so a data failure is entirely possible. Michael Knalleos goes on to write:

On a more cheery note, Bapat and other Sun executives said that the IT industry is also on the verge of a construction boom that, if it happens, will lead to big orders for equipment for makers of servers, storage systems, and other data center equipment.

The typical life span of a data center is only about 10 to 12 years, said the Sun executives. Thus, a lot of those data centers built at the beginning of the dot-com era need to be rebuilt. Other companies like Facebook are expanding rapidly as well. (Sun CTO Greg Papadopoulos mentioned Facebook several times, so it sounds like maybe Sun is working with, or trying to work with, them. Just a thought.)

Great sales pitch, Sun. Yell fire and then start selling fire insurance. Say that there is a drought and start selling water bottles. Good for business, but hidden motives are never well received.

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Na klar!
Download file

A recent article on Howstuffworks.com explores the possibility of the invisible tank. Apparently, the British have a tank that is invisible in the works for 2012. Here how it will work:

The tank is coated in silicon, effectively turning the vehicle into a highly reflective movie screen. Video cameras positioned on the tank take real-time footage of the surrounding environment, and projectors show the images on the surface of the tank. To observers at secret trials conducted by the British army in October 2007, the only thing visible was the images of the terrain projected onto the tank.

Don't think that the United States is just standing by. Here is what they are working on:

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) -- the research wing of the Pentagon -- has received the green light for $15 million in funding over three years to investigate urban obfuscants. This ambitious project is an attempt to create a protective shield for use by soldiers in urban combat situations. A shield that opens quickly in tight spaces and protects a soldier from enemy fire would be a great asset, but DARPA's not stopping there. This shield would also be able to make the soldier beneath it invisible, and would be self-healing, meaning that if a bullet does manage to get through the shield, the material could repair itself.

I think that this technology has a lot of potential and would be a devastating advantage for an enemy to have. I also wonder what kind of consumer goods will be developed because of this new technology. Well, the United States better catch up quickly to the British. After all, the British already have an Invisibility Cloak.

A recent article from Reuters provides some coverage on the 12th annual Robo-One Grand Championship match held in Tokyo, Japan. To win the tournament and the title of the world's strongest two-legged fighting robot, contestants need to be able to keep their balance while punching and dodging blows, and get up when pushed down. Home to 40 percent of the world's robots, Japan is a mecca for amateurs who spent serious money designing and building robots. Through competitions such as the Robo-One, new innovations are constantly being made. In fact, the amateurs are producing better robots than companies such as Sony are. Here is a YouTube video of the 10th annual championship match:

I have chosen to investigate Cleveland Public Library's space on Second Life. On the Cleveland Public Library's homepage, the mission of the library is given:

To be the best urban library system in the country by providing access to the worldwide information that people and organizations need in a timely, convenient, and equitable manner.

In order to achieve this goal, the third largest public research library in the United States decided to open the doors of its online library on November 16, 2007. I recently visited the Cleveland Public Library to investigate.

There are nine places to visit at the Second Life Cleveland Public Library.

The Cleveland Public Library has the world largest chess collection. Therefore, the theme of chess is pervasive throughout the space. I started my journeys at the main library.

The Second Life version of the main library is very similar to the appearance of the actual building.

Outside, there is a sign that gives the history of the Cleveland Public Library on a notecard to the clicking avatar. Inside, the library shows off parts of its world renowned chess collection with signs of uploaded images of different kinds of chess boards and pieces. There are also signs that avatars can click on to receive notecards with more information about Austrian, Staunton, Export Indian, Italian Courtier, Blind man's, Medieval, Cantonese Export, Crusaders chessmen as well as chessmen dressed in simple religious attire.

The next place I decided to visit was the Reading Garden.

Like with the main museum, there is a sign where avatars can learn more about the Eastman Reading Garden via notecard. Inside, the reading garden was full of trees and flowers with ample sitting places. It seemed to be very relaxing and a great place to gather your thoughts.

The next place I visited was the amphitheater.

The amphitheater was well constructed and even included a popcorn maker that gives avatars free popcorn. However, the video that is supposed to play does not work. I suspect that this error is because the library just opened on Second Life and will be fixed in the future.

I visited the photo gallery next.

The photo gallery design into the shape of a camera was very creative. Once inside the lens, there were many signs adorned with pictures about sheet music in Ohio and specifically Cleveland. However, the signs do not provide notecards with more information about the specific sheet music. Because I am not an expert in the field of music, I was a little confused and more information would be helpful.

After my visit to the Photo Gallery, I visited the CLEVNET building.

Outside the building, there is a sign that gives the clicking avatar more information about what CLEVNET is. CLEVNET is Cleveland Public Library's online presence. The CLEVNET building resembles the normal office building. There are chairs, desks, and laptops, but that is it.

The other four places in the Cleveland Public Library's Second Life presence are all chess boards. These four playable chess boards are Mycenaean, Generic, Wonderland, and Hungarian-Russian chessboards.

Overall, I found Cleveland Public Library's space on Second Life to be very impressive. With nine places to visit, I thought that the space was vast but also complicated. Outside of the CLEVNET building, the rest of the Cleveland Public Library's space on Second Life was very interactive and informative. On the web, Cleveland Public Library has gotten the word out about their space. On the Second Life blog called InfoIsland, there was a blog post about the library:

Cleveland Public Library Opens in Second Life Cleveland Public Library, of Cleveland, Ohio, is opening a new sim on Friday, November 16th. Cleveland Public Library is the third largest public research library in the United States, and also is the largest repository of chess-related items in the world. The island includes playable, life-size chess sets, and the Main Library building currently features an exhibit of historical chess sets owned by the library in RL. Also be sure to check out the Photo Gallery (believe us, you’ll know it when you see it!), where we have an exhibit of sheet music related to Cleveland and Ohio.

The sim will open to the public at 3pm SLT, with tours as time and guides allow. Grand opening activities will include two live music performances: Picker Apogee at 5pm SL and Nad Gough at 7pm SLT. A costume contest for the best chess-related costume will take place at 6pm SLT, with a $1000L grand prize to the winner. The life-size chess sets will also be available for casual or competitive play. Please IM Lebachai Vesta with any questions. Please join us to celebrate this major opening in Second Life!

On Cleveland Public Library's homepage, there was an announcement about their grand opening in Second Life, but no other information was provided.

From participating in Second Life, the Cleveland Public Library, or the People's University, takes one more step in fulfilling its objective of providing worldwide information. By having their own island, the library is gaining a reputation as one of the more innovative libraries in the nation as well as in the world. To truly capitalize its presence on Second Life, the library should in the future add more information about all kinds of subjects and become "best urban library system in the country."

An article from Howstuffworks.com explores the conundrum of how does Santa squeeze down the chimney. After all, Santa is a big and jolly man, and using the front door wouldn't be the style of someone who can travel around the world in one night. The answer is miniaturization technology. Michael C. LaBarbera, a professor of organismal biology and anatomy and geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago, believes that reducing the distance between molecular bonds could do the trick. There's a lot of empty space between the nucleus of an atom and the electrons surrounding it, so moving everything closer together could potentially decrease the size of an object. The mass of the object stays the same, of course, so that may explain any loud crashes that might come from the fireplace if Santa slipped.

Of course! That makes sense perfect sense. For a minute there, I was questioning Santa's existence. Who knew that Santa was such as technological marvel, like The Atom from the comic book world.

With all the advances in technology, there are things holding technology back? In article written by David Meyer on ZDNet, the top ten things that are holding technology back are explored. So, here they are:

1. Microsoft's stranglehold on the desktop
2. Operator lock-in
3. Input methods
4. Battery life
5. The mania for speed
6. Intellectual property law
7. Skills inequalities
8. Web 2.0
9. National interests
10. The current lack of global wars and/or disasters

I was surprised that Web 2.0 made the list. In IST 110H, we have sung the praises of Web 2.0 and the benefits of social networking, the blogosphere, YouTube, and Second Life. Here is what Meyer has to say:

Do we really need applications like Twitter? What price a poke on Facebook? Microsoft's recent purchase of a chunk of Facebook valued the social-networking company at $15bn (£7.2bn). This is a company that does not yet have a proven business plan, despite having big aspirations as a marketing hub. Two years ago, eBay bought Skype for $2.6bn and Skype — a mostly free service — is currently struggling to justify that price.

It's nice to see the vanguard cashing in. But they're not really worth their valuations or the mountains of cash they have received from venture capitalists, whose money could probably find better use in other areas of technological innovation.

With the global economy in its current, credit-crunched state, Web 2.0 runs the risk of not only taking funding away from worthier areas of research but also contributing to a downturn that may hit the tech industry particularly hard. It remains a crucial element of the way we interact through technology, but its business models need a lot of work.

The lack of the business model reminds me of that Second Life IBM commercial. How do you make money?

The United States government is getting involved in Second Life. In class, we visited and talked about NOAA's presence in the virtual world called Meteora. Meteora is one of the best islands I have seen so far in Second Life. Meteora is very interactive and informative at the same time. The tsunami simulation was awesome, although my avatar might beg to differ.

However, we did not talk about Health Info Island which is controlled by the National Library of Medicine. I found this island also to be very informative. For example, the island had a path of support with signs that had information on different diseases and cures.

However, during my stay at Health Info Island, one sign in particular caught my attention.

Homework Assignment 3, anyone?