marientina

Perhaps the true sign of maturity of a medium is the decision to stop selling it with the same strategies as porn.

The video game industry's annual showcase is saying goodbye to scantily clad booth babes, extravagant multimillion dollar exhibits, blaring lights and pounding music. Celebrity appearances from the likes of Paris Hilton or Snoop Dogg are a thing of the past, too.

This year's version of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, renamed the E3 Media & Business Summit, will be a toned-down affair as organizers hope to have a far less flashy discussion on new and upcoming video games.

more here

Posted by marientina at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So my shiny April copy of Communications of the ACM read 'Flow in Games' on the cover and I thought, "hmm...I wonder if Jenova knows about this..." and then I turn to the page of the article and whaddayaknow? Jenova Chen wrote the article. Phew...

Published under the Viewpoints Column, you can find "Flow in Games (and Everything Else)" by Jenova Chen and several familiar sentences and graphics from Jenova's past presentations when he was a student.

Posted by marientina at 4:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Game Developers Conference expands--but too far?

For Patricia Pizer, a longtime developer of online games, GDC has been a chance to keep abreast of the latest thinking and developments in making games.

But Pizer, who traditionally hosts a gathering of her industry friends and acquaintances, said she's seen the nature of the conference change over the years.

"It's gotten so big," Pizer said. "It used to feel more like a community of my peers, and now it feels more like a frat party. On the other hand, it has also gotten more corporate. It's a funny contradiction. It will continue to get progressively more commercial and less academic."

read the whole article here

Posted by marientina at 1:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We are now fully functional after a scheduled powerdown of all servers due to facilities repairs this weekend. If you didn't check your email, I turned everything off yesterday afternoon around 6pm as a precaution and Diana Hughes turned everything back on today at 12.30pm. We would have been up sooner but Cinema operations was unavailable. Our apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Posted by marientina at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is perhaps the funniest thing I have read in long time.

The "Hug" technology involves the pet fowl wearing a wireless, sensor-rigged "jacket", moving inside its coop in the "home" set-up, and being tracked by a video camera.

The information is transmitted via the internet to the "office" set-up, wherein a 3D model of the pet moves exactly like its live counterpart.

When the owner touches this model, the instructions are translated into data and reproduced as a series of vibrations, on the jacket worn by the hen.

Teh said that the system which is being tested, will give the chicken the feeling of being touched by its owner. Teh has been working on this project for 2 years, along with center director - Adrian David Cheok and center manager - Lee Shang Ping.

Posted by marientina at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This is perhaps the funniest thing I have read in long time.

The "Hug" technology involves the pet fowl wearing a wireless, sensor-rigged "jacket", moving inside its coop in the "home" set-up, and being tracked by a video camera.

The information is transmitted via the internet to the "office" set-up, wherein a 3D model of the pet moves exactly like its live counterpart.

When the owner touches this model, the instructions are translated into data and reproduced as a series of vibrations, on the jacket worn by the hen.

Teh said that the system which is being tested, will give the chicken the feeling of being touched by its owner. Teh has been working on this project for 2 years, along with center director - Adrian David Cheok and center manager - Lee Shang Ping.

read more insanity

Posted by marientina at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A good friend and collaborator, Mina Vasalou does research on some very controversial topics on human-computer interaction. Given our talks about BackChannel and social behaviour, I find her work now even more interesting:

One of her latest papers:

DigitalBlush: Towards a self-conscious community
In human societies, behavior is often mediated by a set of rules which if broken, have practical (i.e. tarred reputation) as well as emotional consequences (i.e. feeling shame for one’s action). It is fear for both sanctions that leads to norm internalization. Trust and reputation mechanisms have focused on the practical consequences, neglecting to account for the weight of emotions. In this article, we present shame and embarrassment as a possible behavior-controlling mechanism working on an emotional level and strengthening current trust and reputation systems. Through a three line inquiry, we discuss our future work joining into a single objective: to develop a self-conscious community whose members may engage in controlled and even more importantly, prosocial behaviors towards other members.

Posted by marientina at 4:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

PC as Personal Companion for Computer Studies"
Chicago Flame (10/24/05)

The National Science Foundation has awarded a three-year, $520,000 grant to support the development of a personal computer that will act like a student and assist students in solving problems. University of Illinois at Chicago associate computer science professor Barbara Di Eugenio will develop a "dialog agent" along with Pamela Jordan and Sandra Katz, research associates at the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh. In addition to developing a dialog agent that can think, respond, and speak like a college student, the researchers have to design a unit that college students, including female undergraduates, would want to use. The researchers will also work with David Allbritton, a psychology professor at DePaul University. The computer has to be able to answer questions if it is to interact with students, says Di Eugenio.

Posted by marientina at 2:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In a very "Carrie-Sex and the City way", I feel like asking: is municipal wireless access a fundamental human right?

My heart says yes and my brain says no. It think it should be available like a utility, in a low-cost manner because it would stimulate the economy so much. It would create jobs and a whole new way of doing things. Mmore people can telecommute rather than waste gas. And it takes so little to make it free...My brain on the other hand keeps thinking OMG what about security and quality of service and free market competition and all that other stuff?

The controversial mayor of San Franscisco sees wireless as a fundamental human right. It is a wonderful thought, yet at a time when everything seems to be slipping back into the past, and we seem to be losing so many rights, (privacy, choice and the right to a clean environment), the topic of wireless internet access seems so futile. Or maybe that will help people mobilize and advocate? Sometimes it isn't good enough to just socialize and talk about things. You have to actually do something about it. Like stand on a picket line. Or boycott something. Even writing this feels cheap to me, but I do have the fundamental right to ponder...:)

Posted by marientina at 6:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I am in the market for a phone or PDA under $400 (or less) that can surf and do email well with a windows OS so it can sync with my MS apps. So far, I have been very happy with my Acer TravelMate C111TCi and my Sierra Wireless 750 with T-Mobile when traveling. I looked and looked and looked, and I ended up on a the Acer site again (surprise). Has anyone tried an Acer N50 PDA with GPRS PC Card?

I think I am in love with it. It isn't available in the US but don't let that stop me. I am primarily interested in a road-warrior PDA with phone cababilities with power features rather than frills.

Any clues? Something will have to be very catchy to make me part with my current Tablet, even for a few hours per day... :)

Posted by marientina at 12:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

via CNet (07/15/05); Borland, John

May the happy swapping continue until we drop dead!

Independent open-source file-swapping projects have not been muzzled by the Supreme Court's recent ruling that commercial file-trading companies that encourage copyright infringement by users could be liable for digital piracy, although the court case has been a topic for discussion among open-source programmers. Freenet founder Ian Clarke says commercial peer-to-peer (P2P) software developers are likely to be the ones most affected by the court's decision. "Even then, the impact is really to make them more careful about what they say both within their companies and externally about aspirations for their software," he notes. Many open-source programming projects are decentralized and do not generate revenues, although the file-swapping software they produce is similar in function and popularity to that used by commercial P2P software distributors. Intellectual property lawyer Jeffrey Neuburger argues that open-source developers could be deemed legally responsible for copyright infringement if they are not careful. Few open-source programmers seem willing to halt their projects, although some are taking pains not to appear as through they are endorsing copyright infringement. Still, it is hard to deny that many of the most prominent P2P concepts and products, such as BitTorrent, sprang from open-source projects. BitTorrent is a popular file-swapping tool, but its use for sanctioned activities, such as the distribution of open-source operating system files, is increasing.

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Posted by marientina at 2:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

More disturbing news. Yes, what a surprise that wars in two fronts and a large deficit are causing cuts to federally funded projects throughout the map. Yet funding for military projects abounds...

From Chronicle of Higher Education (05/20/05) Vol. 51, No. 37, P. A1; Kiernan, Vincent

The National Science Foundation's decision to withdraw funding for its three supercomputer centers is breeding uncertainty about the future of academic supercomputing in the United States. NSF supercomputers are critical to academic efforts because other federal supercomputing resources--though more powerful than NSF and university machines--are generally inaccessible to academics. The National Coordination Office for Information Technology Research and Development reports the foundation has requested a $307 million supercomputing budget for fiscal 2006, but this is paltry compared to the $1 billion-plus "cyberinfrastructure" budget recommended by an NSF advisory panel two years ago. The foundation elected to allow the five-year contracts for the San Diego Supercomputer Center, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center to expire. The agency has supplied additional money to sustain the operation of the first two facilities for three more years, and intends to invite new bids for their operation to researchers; but there is no assurance that any of the centers will get a contract, nor is any money being budgeted for new computer purchases. Researchers warn that the centers' host institutions stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in outside investment if the facilities are transferred, and Russ Miller with the State University of New York at Buffalo says the funding uncertainty adversely affects employee morale. NSF officials argue that competition helps guarantee the facilities fulfill scholars' requirements and are a good investment of taxpayers' money, while the foundation's Sangtae Kim is confident the centers can survive on grants from the NSF and other agencies.

Posted by marientina at 1:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Adobe to Buy Macromedia in $3.4 Billion Stock Deal"

Now this is serious news... I wonder if our licensing cost will go down or up but it may make things easier. Can you however say...m@#$%^&y?

Maybe the next package will be Adobe UberSuite 2006?

Posted by marientina at 7:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

So yes I am cheap or as others would put it: frugal. And I do think that $3.50 for a healthy sandwich on campus is not too much to ask for. So I did my research and consulted my ubersonogeek brother and decided that based on my budget a mini-disc player is what I need and can afford.

My car's cd changer broke, my cd-player is an old clunker and I need something I can walk to, listen to in the car, run to on the treadmill and listen to at work. And I had to spend less than $150. Enter Sony MD WalkMan MZ-NH600D and a cheap Belkin FM transmitter. Problem sold. Fantastic sound quality with 48kbs sound. Easy and quick audio transfer. $7 per mini disc for 1gb. It even has a little jog dial and all the standard player features one really needs and I get five free songs. It is light and takes one AA battery that lasts forever. All for $105 shipping and tax included, courtesy of eBay. My only compromise was that it has no FM, but my radio works in the car and at work I listen to KCRW or KJazz over the network so I can live without.

Two hours later 26 albums later from my cd/mp3 collection, I am ready to rock and the disc is not full yet. And I even had enough money left over to visit Zara on the Promenade and buy a fabulous scarf.

Now who said it takes a lot to please a woman?

Posted by marientina at 11:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Xbox Power Cords Can Catch Fire, Recall Announced
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Posted by marientina at 5:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You hear that kids? Get with the program. I would be more than glad to do a Linux workshop for noobs. It is a little sad that hackers opt for the easy Windows boxes than getting into a wide open linux box.

"The Honeynet Project, which consisted of 12 honeynets in eight countries, determined that unpatched Linux systems last about three months on average on the Internet before becoming compromised, with one system lasting as long as nine months. By comparison, an Internet Storm Center project focusing on Windows-based computers measures survival time in minutes, with most lasting an average of 55 minutes in 2003 and just under 20 minutes in late 2004. The life expectancy of Linux systems has improved significantly since 2001-2002, when an unpatched Linux system lasted an average of 72 hours before being compromised. Honeynet researchers believe attackers prefer targeting Windows systems due to their prevalence and ease of attack. In fact, attacking end users, such as personal computers and small-business computers, is more lucrative than attacking highly secured banks. Most of the compromised Honeynet Project computers were used by attackers for Internet Relay Chat bouncing and hosting phishing schemes with one attacker attempting to establish a fake banking Web site in order to collect data from unknowing suspects. Honeynet Project President Lance Spitzner notes that high-value Linux systems such as company Web servers are still targets for attackers, because the potential payoffs for hackers are significant. He says such systems "are prime targets and are attacked every day, if not every hour. If vulnerable, they would be hacked very soon." The Honeynet Project also noted that default Linux installations are increasingly more secure, while older Linux systems are easier to hack."

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Posted by marientina at 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)