Paul Winchell Dies @ 82

"Paul Winchell, the voice of Tigger in "Winnie the Pooh" features for more than three decades and a versatile ventriloquist who became a fixture in early children's television along with his dummies Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff, has died. He was 82.

Although he was a legendary ventriloquist and built a career attracting legions of followers of that dwindling art, Winchell's most durable legacy may be his rich voice as Tigger and other animated characters on television and in motion pictures."

Link to full article on Paul Mitchell dot Com

It's offical: Video Games Kill :D

Death via mouse and dancing pixels; sounds cruel and unusual to me...
check out the Rueters Wire

Sounds like a Game geek tragedy; I wonder what game he was playing?

Mobile games News

A few links from the Fierce Developer Weekly Wireless Developer Report:

According to a survey conducted by mobile games company I-Play, only one-in-20 mobile phone customers has downloaded a game onto their handset. One-third of respondents were unsure if their phone could even play games and 18 percent wanted to download games, but weren't sure how. Read the article for more statistics.

Square Enix Mobile Q&A
[my favorite game of all time Dragon Quest, or as I knew it on the NES Dragon Warrior]

Sony Ericsson has announced the W550, the newest in its line of Walkman phones. It is a "spinner," or swivel phone, with a 1.8" display, 256MB of memory, a slick 1.3-MP camera, and stereo speakers. In an unusual move, Sony Ericsson is launching the device in the US first before bringing it to other markets. Blog

more...

The W550 also offers an authentic games console experience. Games can be played with the screen positioned horizontally and buttons on the left and right of the screen being used for two-handed control. Gamers can enjoy this experience through the pre-installed 3D versions of WormsForts: Under Siege 3D developed by THQ Wireless, Extreme Air Snowboarding developed by Digital Chocolate and a new multiplayer version of Midway’s Gauntlet, developed under license by TKO Software. If users prefer, horizontal-mode games can also be played in portrait mode or an L-Shaped mode using the keyboard. The W550 also supports multi-player peer-2-peer gaming over Bluetooth.

Housing Maps

OK; old news maybe.

Cooler than cool; coworkers @ Saatchi hooked me up with this link. The marriage of Google and Craigslist; great stuff.

www.housingmaps.com

"HP Drops 4 Research Groups in Downsizing"

from San Francisco Chronicle (07/22/05) P. C1; Pimentel, Benjamin

Four research groups at HP Labs will be dropped as part of Hewlett-Packard's latest downsizing effort, one of which was headed by renowned computing pioneer Alan Kay. Kay won the ACM's A.M. Turing Award and the National Academy of Engineering Charles Stark Draper Prize, and was a co-designer of ARPAnet, the Internet's predecessor. HP Labs' Dave Berman says Kay's group dealt with advanced software research, but insists that HP's research agenda will remain "rich and varied" despite the loss. The other groups eliminated by the downsizing include a pair of Palo Alto labs focusing on consumer applications and emerging technologies, and a Cambridge, Mass., group whose work covered health care and medical issues. Berman cites HP Labs' continuing quantum computing and nanotechnology research as evidence of the company's dedication to R&D-supported innovation. "We are trying to refocus our research into the areas of greatest promise and our core strength and those areas which are most important to HP in the medium and long term," Berman says. Analyst Michael Dortch warns that HP could put itself at a disadvantage if it no longer has access to talent of Kay's caliber. He says, "How many times in a lifetime does a company like HP get access to a mind like Alan Kay's?"

read more

Need a buzz? Try Google...

From BBC News:
Ten people have been arrested in Brazil after authorities discovered them allegedly using Google's online community site, Orkut, to sell drugs.
Read the Article

Not too smart if you ask me, illegal activity conducted in a place made of data trails and footprints, sounds like a great way to get busted!

Mobile sale to hit 1 billion by 09

A new BBC article on the potential take over of the consumer electronics market by mobile devices.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4697405.stm

"Simulated Society May Generate Virtual Culture"

This idea sounds awfully familiar...It is like an upgrade to the Sims, minus the fun factor. It is interesting and crazy at the same time that we are now observing virtual people, as if there aren't enough real people around to observe. Are we headed toward extinction? Perhaps they should hire Jane Goodall for this project...

Researchers participating in the New and Emergent World Models Through Individual, Evolutionary and Social Learning (NEW-TIES) project are developing a society of virtual characters that can eat, reproduce, communicate, and learn through interaction. The scientists hope the virtual people's communications ability will spawn sophisticated cultural activities similar to those found in human societies. The project will place about 1,000 "agents" in a simulated environment hosted on a computer network distributed across two U.K. universities, two Dutch universities, and one Hungarian university. Each agent will be programmed to move throughout the simulation, build simple structures, survive through eating, and learn from its environment; they will also be able to mate with members of the opposite gender and produce offspring that will receive a random collection of hereditary traits from both parents. Moreover, the virtual characters will concoct their own language by pointing to objects and employing randomly generated "words." University of Surrey scientist Nigel Gilbert says the experiment could be particularly incisive if the simulated people develop ritual practices or learn to use non-functional objects symbolically. Indiana University's Edward Castronova is skeptical that NEW-TIES will generate important insights into human society and culture, arguing that "Inferences from an entirely artificial system are always going to be weakened by the artificiality." He says it is more sensible to study real human societies that mature within virtual fantasy environments.

read more

EA: buying into the mobile arena?

In yet another aquisition, rumors circulated yesterday about a potential EA purchase of the Mobile Media Giant JAMDAT Mobile, causing an over 9% rise of the JMDT stock price to $33.17 on Monday.

After working at both I have to say the dry lack-luster cubicle cultures found at both will be a good match; it's strange what people will pay for a few old-skool brands and a suprisinngly uncreative infrasturcture.

I imagine the purchase revolves around JAMDAT properties like DOOM, Tetris, and Lemonade Tycoon.

I hope this pushes JAMDAT to create some good content. After playing thier mobile titles for hours (forceably;))I can honestly say they are very poor; crap content driven by basic game mechanics.

Maybe this would push them to create some cutting edge games, as EA currently hopes it is.

Buy, buy, buy.... or so said the market; pick up some JMDT stock soon an maybe you too could make a few bucks!
Yahoo finacial Summary

As you can see this afternoon the market cooled off dropping the price by 0.51USD; so maybe these are just rumors?

A spokesperson from Jamdat was not immediately available to comment, and a spokeswoman from Electronic Arts declined to comment on what she called "rumors."

MTV/Viacom buys NeoPets

I actually didn't find out about this Tuesday, 160 million dollar deal until I saw the usual suspects blogging about it yesterday. Little rants and raves come from guys like a venture capitalist (here) and blogs that copy said VC's entire blog entry (everywhere else.)

Intelligent Agent

The latest issue of Intelligent Agent has two articles of interest — to me leastways. One on video game experience and the other on land art. Now, if I can only figure out the interface and actually read the articles..

Here, let me help cut through the interface mishegoss.

Here's the one titled The Narrowing Experience of "Experience" in Video Role-Playing Games, and here's the one titled After land art: database and the locative turn .

Scholarships anyone?

Welcome to the Intelligence Scholars Program, spy on your school, and classmates, attend CIA summer camps, and you could get up to 50k annually!

"Are you a high school senior planning to enroll in an accredited four- or five-year college program or a college sophomore interested in working for a dynamic agency? If so, the Central Intelligence Agency might have a special program and career position for you."
From the CIA student opps page
No worries there are graduate opps as well!

"The United States is at war. Thus, to put it simply, the existing divide between academe and the intelligence community has become a dangerous and very real detriment to our national security at home and abroad."

Read the BBC News article

Hong Kong job opportunities for our recent graduates

The School of Creative Media at City University in Hong Kong is looking for instructors in Animation and New Media. The Dean of SCM specifically asked me to post this link to these job opportunties for our recent grads.

I can tell you from experience that this is a great school and living and working in Hong Kong is an excellent opportunity. The faculty here are very interesting people to work with and the students are fantastic and talented. If anyone is wondering what to do next, you might want to follow up on this. If you have any questions, shoot me an email.

Firefox security alert

Read advisory for instructions. You need to manually change some settings for the time being until an update fix is made; this includes disabling javascript, which appears to prevent you from using uscwebmail, unfortunately. Have to switch it on and off for a while..

MacArthur Award to ACC

Congrats to Professor Mimi Ito, Co-PI on this major grant:

A grant of $3.3 million over three years was awarded to School of Information Systems at the University of California at Berkeley and the Annenberg Center for Communication at the University of Southern California to study how and to what effect young people use digital media. The ethnographic study, which is one of the largest to date, will involve a diverse sample of young people between the ages of 10 and 18 in four physical sites and as many as 20 virtual spaces. Researchers will examine how young people experience digital media and use digital tools in their daily lives, and document the consequences of this exposure. The findings of the study also will be used to help identify possible implications for learning.

MacArthur Foundation Press Release

Real ID ACt

The measure, called the Real ID Act, says that driver's licenses and other ID cards must include a digital photograph, anticounterfeiting features and undefined "machine-readable technology, with defined minimum data elements" that could include a magnetic strip or RFID tag. The Department of Homeland Security would be charged with drafting the details of the regulation.

Continue Reading on news.com

Happy 60th B-Day to BOB

"We should really love each other
In peace and harmony
Instead, instead, we're fussing and fighting
Like we ain't supposed to be, tell me why"

I love Bob. I think the greatest lesson he has is that the media machine can be used to spread a message of unity, love, and rebellion. He is one of the few artists I know of that can speak of God and keep everybody nodding and smiling.

praise.

May our interactive works be as Bobs' music, a tool for the good, for the soul, for humanity.

Experimental Game Lab at UC San Diego

Looks like my alma mater's got their own new game lab:

A gift of more than $290,000 from Sammy Studios, Inc., the Carlsbad, California-based videogame company, a subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings, was made in the fall of 2004 to support UCSD’s Experimental Game Lab (EGL) at the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA).

“Computer games are a defining cultural form for the 21st century,” said Sheldon Brown, director of CRCA’s Experimental Game Lab and leader of the New Media Arts Layer at Cal-(IT)2. “The technology and aesthetics of computer games are driving the future development of computer graphics, visual communications and information infrastructures. The intellectual exchange at the core of this relationship will support the development of new types of expressive capacities through technological innovations.”

Link: UCSD Center for Research in Computing and the Arts

Goodbye, Media Lab Europe

Outside looking in and inside looking out.

The Best of the Next 25 Years (Ars t+25 Predictions Timeline)

For Ars Electronica last year, I produced a predictions timeline, where anyone could enter a prediction online, year by year, for the next 25 years, and where anyone could vote on them. When we officially froze the website at the end of the Festival, 500 predictions were entered with almost 18,000 votes.

Though many of the predictions were interesting, the voting idea didn't work (go figure). The IMD First Year students last term in CTIN 511 came to the rescue and ranked all 500 individually, with a 0 (not interesting), a 1 (OK / maybe / not sure), or a 2 (very interesting / clever / funny / insightful). We ended up with 10 sets of the 500 numbers.

The Ars folks just compiled 2 Top 50 lists at my request, based on compiling these numbers:
weighting 0-->0, 1-->1, and 2-->3
weighting 0-->0, 1-->1, and 2-->5

Please check them out. We'd be grateful for your feedback. Ars will then post this list publicly on their website.

Great job, First Year Students!

Revenge of the Nerd

Investigators with the Attorney General's High-Tech Crimes Unit say the situation started when a 15-year-old female student created a website called "Loranger's biggest queer.com." The website featured pictures of a 14-year-old male student. He responded with his own web site, which investigators say included a list of students he called "The Preps," and poems so graphically violent, investigators say "they crossed the line."

"When you have students making threats to other students or groups of students on the Internet, talking about killing someone or blowing up the school or shooting a certain group of people, when there's a feud like that and certain words are used," explains Wartelle, "That's when you worry about something escalating or becoming the next columbine and these days you have to take threats seriously."

Cyber-stalking is a relative felony, which means a judge can decide if it is a misdemeanor of the more serious felony crime. It's punishable with a $2,000 fine or one year imprisonment.

Read the Article

FBI Probes Laser Beam

2 hours, 41 minutes ago
CLEVELAND - Authorities are investigating a mysterious laser beam that was directed into the cockpit of a commercial jet traveling at more than 8,500 feet.

The beam appeared Monday when the plane was about 15 miles from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, the FBI (news - web sites) said.
Read the Wire

sos

found this funny.

cnn article

An Oregon man discovered earlier this month that his year-old Toshiba Corporation flat-screen TV was emitting an international distress signal picked up by a satellite, leading a search and rescue operation to his apartment in Corvallis, Oregon, 70 miles south of Portland.

The signal from Chris van Rossmann's TV was routed by satellite to the Air Force Rescue Center at Langley Air Base in Virginia.

On October 2, the 20 year-old college student was visited at his apartment in the small university town by a contingent of local police, civil air patrol and search and rescue personnel.

"They'd never seen signal come that strong from a home appliance," said van Rossmann. "They were quite surprised. I think we all were."

Authorities had expected to find a boat or small plane with a malfunctioning transponder, the usual culprit in such incidents, emitting the 121.5 MHz frequency of the distress signal used internationally.

Van Rossmann said he was told to keep his TV off to avoid paying a $10,000 fine for "willingly broadcasting a false distress signal."

Toshiba contacted Rossmann and offered to provide him with a replacement set for free, he said.

going political

Sorry, but on a big political kick the past few months (hrm...not sure why...)

Today is the deadline for voter registration in California. Pls register to vote if you haven't already --

you can get any necessary forms online here.

or stop by any post office.

IMD Game Lab Mentioned in Daily Trojan

The Daily Trojan featured us in a brief article this past week.

An Excerpt:
"There are several different facets in gaming the school hopes to improve, such as going beyond classic video game types, and creating new mechanics and player relations, Fisher said. It also expects to advance simulations and storylines in an effort to appeal to a broader audience and to obtain a wider range of emotions in players, he said."

Full Article

George Lucas on THX 1138: "That's the real me."

"For years, I've been doing the pretend me,'' Mr. Lucas said. "I've been successful at it. But my true nature is really "THX" and that's the kind of movie I thought I was going to be making the rest of my life and that I wanted to make and just never - I got sidetracked with all these opportunities. I just sort of got trapped into this thing, which I enjoyed doing a lot, but it's not completely reflective of what I like to do. I never thought I'd get stuck doing kids' films for the rest of my life."

from yesterday's opening of THX 1138 at the Guggenheim Museum, New York.

more

For Immediate Release: Kurt and Tripp Roommates

8/31/04, Hollywood, Ca. - Kurt MacDonald has moved into in Tripp Millican's Hollywood apartment, moving their relationship from 'just friends' to 'roommates'. Though rumors have surfaced about their sexuality, the pair insist they are both straight, despite their co-habitation.

The pair were shocked to discover that most of the Interactive Media division was unaware of their decision to share a living space. The news stopped Scott Fisher dead in his tracks when he found out today. "You [pointing to Tripp] are living with you [pointing to Kurt]?" he queried, unable to hide his confusion.

"I haven't been able to decipher their love/hate relationship over the past several years. I'm not sure what they are trying to prove by living together. Or why they insist on calling their apartment 'The Bungalow'," stated third year student Mike Brinker.

Tripp responded with a vigorous "No comment" when asked about the couple's intention to adopt a South Vietnamese child together.

While details are still vague, the pair seem to be doing well. They are registered at Banana Republic, Williams Sonoma and Ameboa Records.

A date for the housewarming party will be announced shortly.

###

WiFi Amsterdam

Looks as though a startup company in Amsterdam is planning on offering wireless internet access across the whole of amsterdam. Now, I know that amsterdam isn't the biggest place in the world, but maybe this company could consult USC's wireless "provider," ISD, and fill them in on the idea of offering complete wi-fi coverage instead of the patchwork, truly embarrassing coverage we have now. Maybe we can get Amsterdam to purchase USC. At the very least, maybe subcontract out and have them redesign the ISD website.

Link to Reuters article via we-make-money-not-art

Visual Effects - CTAN 462

This is a semi-selfish post, but, the Visual Effects class offered this semester taught by Eric Hanson (author of Maya Killer Tips and artist on many films such as Spiderman and Fifth Element), needs more students to survive. The class is every Monday night 7-10. It's has a rep as a great class in general, as well as to learn things such as Maya, Shake, Boujou, Visual Effects History, etc.

To enroll, contact Isabelle Gelot in LPB 202A, gelot@usc.edu, 213.740.3986

Eric Hanson is a visual effects designer specializing in the creation of digital environments and effects for feature films. Having worked with noted visual effects houses such as Digital Domain, Sony Imageworks, Dream Quest Images, and Walt Disney Feature Animation, his work can be seen in "Spiderman", "Cast Away", "Hollow Man", "Mission to Mars", "Bicentennial Man", "Atlantis", "Fantasia 2000", and "The Fifth Element", as well as many special-venue films.

Eric's Website

Class Info:

462 Visual Effects (2, FaSp) Survey of contemporary concepts and approaches to production in the current stage of film and video effects work. Digital and traditional methodologies will be covered, with a concentration on digital exercises illustrating modern techniques.

Zemeckis Schedule

FYI

We don't make any reservations for the facility after 10 pm. People in the edit labs and other labs can stay till 11:30 pm. At that point we ask everyone to wrap up what they are doing so we can be completely shut down by midnight. Crew on the soundstages are asked to wrap up sooner.

Weekend hours are shorter. The building will be completely closed by 9 pm on Saturday evening. On Sunday evening we are completely closed by 10 pm, though later in the semester this will go to the same schedule as the weekdays.

From the horse's mouth: Alan Starbuck.

antisocial software?

Internet Gives Teenage Bullies Weapons to Wound From Afar

comments

Ok, there is a bit of default commenting weirdness going on at the moment, and I'm at this point only partially sure what's going on, so bear with me for a bit, and hopefully I can get things straightened out.

Basically, the new version of MT has implemented a whole new commenting system that is based around their typekey registration system -- the idea being that only humans, and not spammers, can register, and therefore comment, on our blogs.

so what's happening now, is that since very few of us (I actually am) are signed up for typekey, when we try to post comments without signing in, the comment gets sent to a waiting room where it waits for the blog author to approve it. Then it shows up on the page. To complicate things, my recent comments code on the side doesn't check for the approval info, so it shows that a comment has been made, but doesn't account for if that comment has been given the a-ok yet. Sigh.

Basically, I'm trying to figure out if this is all more trouble than it's worth. However, I can't even really do that, because right now I can't seem to config blogs to just bypass this whole comment reg. system, even though technically it's just a switch in the configuration. Sigh again.

ok, but long story short: bear with me for a bit -- but for the moment, if you see in the recent comments thing that someone has commented on a post of yours, can you pls. log in and approve it...

thanks.

MT 3.0

New version of MT is up. Will post more about this later.

MIA in NYC

Well, I keep coming up with errors everytime I try to post on my blog, so I apologize for putting up personal news on the main page. However, I wanted to give an update on how the show is going.

We open this Tuesday, and I am so excited to get audiences in on this. This past week we were mentioned on a number of conservative programs such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, and we've been fending off death threats and press inquiries ever since. Things are really heating up in the city as we approach the convention, and I can't wait to tell you all the stories.

Here's a link to the press release online. Googling the title or the playwright's name leads you to some really interesting conservative blogs, so have some fun with that!

All in all, I'm learning a lot about augmented reality and audience interaction, and this is a no-tech play, so it will be fun to apply this knowledge in the upcoming semester!

Peace

Back On-The-Line

So, after an interesting week of stuff not working, things have begun to start working again. I know everyone is thinking that black magic was to blame for the server crashing, and that may indeed be true. however, there was no magic involved in the recovery of the server, and everyone should give a warm thanks to our wonderful new lab manager, Marientina Gotsis, who spent many hours salvaging our precious data and reconfiguring the blog you are now (again) looking at. hooray!

indie game dev SIG

new independent game dev SIG here

Welcome to the Indie Special Interest Group of the IGDA, a group of game developers interested in pursuing game development and distribution outside the standard channels as presented by the mainstream industry today. For purposes of this SIG, the definition of 'indie' is:

'Not having any formal relationship with a publisher.'

The purpose of this SIG is to provide information and resources to help build the community of indie developers and support their efforts.

mozilla rich-text buttons

just added some additional blog functionality for us non-IE users (should be more of us after the homeland security folks publicity brought the hammer down on microsoft). Those using mozilla can now markup your entries via the MT web interface. This works under safari as well, except a little differently (ok, a little worse). just added some additional blog functionality for us non-IE users (should be more of us after the homeland security folks publicity brought the hammer down on microsoft). Those using mozilla can now markup your entries via the MT web interface. This sort of works under safari as well, except a little differently (ok, a little worse). Anyway, this should be working on IE since it uses browser detection, but pls. ie folks email me with problems if you have them. code for this was
here via Scott Fisher

ARTISTS SUBPOENAED IN USA PATRIOT ACT CASE

Early morning of May 11, Steve Kurtz awoke to find his wife, Hope, dead of a cardiac arrest. Kurtz called 911. The police arrived and, after stumbling across test tubes and petri dishes Kurtz was using in a current artwork, called in the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Soon agents from the Task Force and FBI detained Kurtz, cordoned off the entire block around his house, and later impounded Kurtz's computers, manuscripts, books, equipment, and even his wife's body for further analysis. The Buffalo Health Department condemned the house as a health risk.

Now four artists have been served subpoenas to appear before a federal grand jury that will consider bioterrorism charges against a university professor whose art involves the use of simple biology equipment.

While most observers have assumed that the Task Force would realize the absurd error of its initial investigation of Steve Kurtz, the subpoenas indicate that the feds have instead chosen to press their "case" against the baffled professor.

Three of the subpoenaed artists--Beatriz da Cost, Steve Barnes and Dorian Burr--are, like Kurtz, members of the internationally-acclaimed Critical Art Ensemble (CAE), an artists' collective that produces artwork to educate the public about the politics of biotechnology. They were served the subpoenas by federal agents who tailed them to an art show at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. The third artist, Paul Vanouse, is, like Kurtz, an art professor at the University at Buffalo. He has worked with CAE in the past.

http://www.caedefensefund.org/

phoberman says:

School's out for summer
(pause)
School's out for-ever (or not really...)

Video Game Summer Camp

USC's old film school nemesis, New York University, looks like it might be starting it's own video game curriculum . . . (although it's being held in NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies, not the Tisch School of the Arts, which is where their film school is):

"A new summer camp, dubbed Camp/Game: Intensive Video Game Creation, will get underway this July at New York University. The camp will last from July 6 to August 6 and focus on the "finer points" of the video game industry, according to a recent press release.

The program, created by the Division of Entertainment, Digital Arts and Design (ETDAD), part of NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies, will explore 3-D animation, character and environment creation, and audio, among others.

'Camp/Game participants in the area learn the basic creative structure, development and production of video games as well as some business fundamentals in a fun, entertaining, yet structured environment,' said Robert Manuel, assistant dean, Division of Entertainment, Technology, Digital Arts and Design."

On a personal side note (don't I always add one?), NYU's SCPS is also the only non-trade or non-art school that we would be competing with on visual effects curriculum, but their entire visual effects program focuses on digital technology, not on the art, design, or integration into a filmmaking environment (for instance, see how it is not in their film school either). I believe that's a draw-back for its students.

Tripp Millican

Since Thursday of last week, Tripp has been in the hospital due to the severe symptoms of his colitis medical condition. Yesterday, while visiting him, he seemed really exhausted, both from fighting the disease and from worrying about his obligations to school and work. Calling him is probably not a great idea right now but I'm sure that small visits to his room would be welcome, just don't expect to stay long because he needs rest more than anything else.

IMSC put together a collection to get him a gift and it made me think that we should do the same. Just knowing that we're thinking about him will help cheer him up. If you would like to contribute, please come by the Interactive Media Division office at Lucas 310 and ask for Kurt or Jen.

CNTV Scholarships

CNTV Scholarships

The above is the link to where you can get your scholarship on. You need your new student ID # (the one with 10 digits) and your SS#.

Here is another link to another school's scholarship page which has helpful information on scholarships outside of USC:

More Info Here

Anyone have any other helpful thinks, please post them in the comments.

INTEL INTERN POSITION 2004: Urban Probes

Parks, sidewalks, subways, parking meters, strangers – all are part of our public urban landscape. How will the future fabric of digital and wireless computing influence, disrupt, and integrate into the social patterns existent in such urban public places?

Intel Research Berkeley has an open Intern position for the summer 2004 to explore and research several themes of Urban Computing using the techniques of Urban Probes. Interns should be adept at rapidly exploring and deconstructing typical urban landscapes, experienced in design sketching and prototyping, possess creative brain and body storming skills, proficiently with computer programming, and manifest an unbridled passion for urban computing based research.

We are looking for talented, qualified candidates pursing research in the areas of HCI, user-centered design, interaction design, art practice, design, and/or evaluation techniques and ethnography. Applicants with experience building physical systems, including fabricating prototypes, workshop experience, and familiarity with sensor and actuator integration with microcontrollers are strongly encouraged. Similarly, we are seeking individuals with experience conducting both qualitative and quantitative user studies, including analysis of the resulting data. Most importantly, we are seeking open minded, creative individuals passionate about designing novel physical artifacts and evaluating them in their natural setting.

All applicants must be currently enrolled in a graduate degree program.
PLEASE VISIT THE WEB SITE FOR DETAILS ON HOW TO APPLY:
http://berkeley.intel-research.net/paulos/lab/intern2004/

Real and Hyper-Real

"Once upon a time - say, back in the 1970s - the visual trickery employed by filmmakers was meant to look real. In many of today's movies, however, the effects are meant to look cool. The difference is huge."

Special effects become Mannerist
CBC News Online | Jan. 13, 2004

broadcast flag

if people get a chance, try and stop this -

from EFF:

If the motion picture studios have their way, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will force all future televisions to include Hollywood-approved "content protection" technologies

- by sending a letter to the FCC here: LINK

thanks.

New Disney space ride so real it's sickening

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) -- Walt Disney World's newest attraction cost $100 million to build and delivers a remarkable simulation of a rocket launch and spacecraft landing, right down to the nausea and brief moment of weightlessness.

linky

not enough to do this semester?

mit has released opencourseware - notes, lectures and tests from classes there. all free. this includes a listing for "Media Arts and Sciences" with 10 classes listed. all sound interesting, as if we have time to take a virtual class, even for free...

Amazon review

Recently found by Perry on Amazon:

Robots, Androids, and Animatrons: 12 Incredible Projects You Can Build
by John Iovine

Customer Reviews

Avg. Customer Review:
Number of Reviews: 18
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

This book has changed my life. , January 22, 2002

Reviewer: M.Johnson from Hiding behind the couch
I bought this book with the humble desire of creating a simple companion. After I finished, the Creation turned on me and my family and reprogrammed my VCR. It then proceeded to change the message on my answering machine. It somehow convinced my Nissan truck not to allow me inside. I fear for my life. How could I have let it go this far? All I really wanted was a cute little Furby but I ended up with a cyber-monster with dreams of wiping out humans and creating a robotic Utopian Hell.....other than that, the book was pretty cool. --This text refers to the Paperback edition .

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

TANA TREPANIER AWARD

THE LABYRINTH PROJECT,
A RESEARCH INITIATIVE ON INTERACTIVE NARRATIVE AT
USC’S ANNENBERG CENTER FOR COMMUNICATION
ANNOUNCES ITS FIRST ANNUAL
TANA TREPANIER AWARD
A $5,000 Stipend FOR THE BEST USC STUDENT PROPOSAL
FOR AN INTERACTIVE PROJECT

THE LABYRINTH PROJECT,
A RESEARCH INITIATIVE ON INTERACTIVE NARRATIVE AT
USC’S ANNENBERG CENTER FOR COMMUNICATION

ANNOUNCES ITS FIRST ANNUAL
TANA TREPANIER AWARD

A $5,000 Stipend FOR THE BEST USC STUDENT PROPOSAL
FOR AN INTERACTIVE PROJECT

Timetable
Sept 1, 2003:Applications available on Labyrinth website www.annenberg.edu/labyrinth
November 1, 2003: Application deadline
December 1, 2003: Announcement of winner
August 15, 2004: Working prototype or Finished project due

Who is eligible
Any USC student (undergraduate or graduate) who is currently enrolled at USC.
Either an individual or a group of collaborators, so long as they are all students currently enrolled at USC.

Kinds of interactive projects that are acceptable
CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs, installations, websites, games, or any other form of interactive project.

Materials required, along with completed application form
Brief project description (maximum 3 pages)
Sample images (optional)
Recommendation by a professor or mentor who can comment on student’s abilities to complete the project
Brief resume, detailing previous creative work

The Labyrinth Project will provide the winner access to computer equipment and software (Director, Final Cut/Avid?, After effects, Illustrator, Flash, Photoshop) for graphics, programming and editing.

Winner will hold copyright to the project, but must include the following credit line wherever it appears: Funded by The Tania Trepanier Award, granted by The Labyrinth Project at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Center for Communication.

R.I.P. Netscape

It was only a matter of time after the MS/AOL settlement, but it looks like as of today, Netscape is dead.

With the newly launched Mozilla Foundation, however, it looks like Mozilla is in good hands.

slashdot roundup

scott asked me to put up some of the recent articles from slashdot. i know many of you read it, but here are some of the relevant articles from the last few days.
Games Tax To Fund Obesity Prevention?
Concern Over Dropping Japanese Console Sales
Swimming Cockroach Robot Developed
Get Hitched In Phantasy Star Online
Profile of a Hard-Core Gamer
Life At Full Sail - The Gamer School
Racing Games Too Fast, Furious For U.S.?
Different Country, Different Game Content
One-Thumb Keyboard

Coming to a DVD Player Near You: The Interactive Movie

On the front page of the LA Times Business section:

"After handling the splashy special effects for hundreds of movies and television shows, Dan Krech and the artists at DKP Effects Inc. decided to step into the director's seat.

Their animated movie, "Scourge of Worlds," took $3 million and a mere seven months to make. It grabbed the attention of several major movie studios and nailed down a distribution deal from a unit of Warner Bros. The artists already are in talks to make a sequel.

And it'll never hit the big screen.

Krech and his team in Toronto are part of a booming new market: Straight to DVD."

Read the article.