Giving a Second Life

Posted on 2009-02-07 by Greg

Reuters reported on November 27, 2007 that “People with severe paralysis could find new opportunities from shopping to doing business or making new friends in the virtual world of Second Life by just thinking about it, if experiments being conducted by a Japanese university bear fruit. In a recent demonstration, Junichi Ushiba, an associate professor at Keio University and head of the project, showed how electrodes attached to the scalp can pick up the electrical changes associated with brain activity.”

Second Life has the potential to change the way we learn, and in this example, the way we do eCommerce. To give people with mobility problems a way to explore a virtual world should give everyone involved additional motivation to improve the Second Life technology.

Keio University is located at 2-15-45 Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-8345:

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Now Here’s a Curious Extension for your FireFox Browser

Posted on 2007-12-17 by Greg

President Ahmadinejad Countdown

Quoted “A timer that counts down the number of days remaining in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s term as President of Iran. Clicking on the countdown will show news of presidency.” Perhaps they could add Chavez of Venezuela.

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Doing the Right Thing: Too Late for Harvard

Posted on 2007-12-10 by Greg

All of a sudden Harvard wakes up to the reality that the middle class is excluded. Today’s WSJ: “Harvard University sweetened its financial aid for middle-class and upper-middle-class families, responding to criticism that elite colleges have become unaffordable for ordinary Americans. Undergraduates whose families earn up to $180,000 would be asked to pay 10% or less of their incomes annually for the cost of Harvard. For example, a family making $120,000 will be asked to pay about $12,000, down from more than $19,000 under current student-aid policies.”

Ten years too late for us. In 1996, my oldest child was accepted to Harvard. The only people that could send their children to Harvard then were the very rich and the very poor.

Of course, there were other considerations. The English department was substituting readings of very questionable merit in place of the great works of western civilization. We weren’t so sure Harvard was the best choice anyway.

And now for the rest of the story: Things worked out for the better at Tulane and Imperial College London. After all, in his fourth year Tulane had three Goldwater scholars and Harvard maybe one. He was one of the three. Could have done worse. God always has a better plan.

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Cisco Telepresence – a cure for global warming?

Posted on 2007-12-08 by Greg

Every once in a while you find a video that kinda leaves you breathless. Here is one:

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The Real Project Management Institute

Posted on 2007-12-05 by Greg

I have been a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI) since January of 2001. I have served as a officer in the local chapter since 2002 including a term as president.

I am among many members that see that PMI is making some bad choices.  The leadership has become focused on survival rather than the interests of the members. This is very common among non profit organizations, as exemplified by the actions of such organizations as the American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, and the American Cancer Society. The leadership begins to think that the increase in donations is due to their work rather than the generosity of donors and the hours of time contributed by volunteers.

If you consider the services that Project Managers really want, it does not take deep analysis to figure out that PMI is not providing those services. Filling the void is pmforum.org. This website is run by PMI Fellow David Pells. Time will tell, but it looks like more and more project managers will find what they need in such alternatives.

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Medical Missions Video Working

Posted on 2007-12-04 by Greg

I am an advisor for the New Orleans Medical Mission Services Foundation, Inc. I have been working on a Brightcove video for 2006 missions to Ecuador and Nicaragua. It’s working (beta)! Have a look.

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Kindle a flame or a smolder?

Posted on 2007-11-26 by Greg

Amazon just introduced Kindle, an ebook reader.

Larry Magid in an opinion piece at the San Jose Mercury sees some problems: “It would make a lot more sense if it were under $100. Or they could have justified the price if were also a decent music player, Web browser and PDA…Another drawback is an annoying black flash on the screen when you push the next page button.”

Andy Greenburg in a similar piece at Forbes says “Even with its sterile look and high price tag, it just might be adopted by law students looking to compress their pile of textbooks, or frequent business travelers tired of hauling paperbacks. McGraw-Hill spokesman Frank Briamonte points out that for higher education textbooks, the company’s e-books are already 55% cheaper than its printed editions. As such electronic books hit the mainstream, will they transform the publishing industry the way that the iPod has transformed the music business? Wait for Kindle 2.0–or for Apple to invent something far more fun.”

John Paczkowski at AllThingsD surmizes that “…Apple could easily develop an e-book reader for the iPhone or the multitouch tablet it’s allegedly prepping for market, launch it in concert with an iTunes bookstore or a partnership with Google Book Search and, ba-da-bing, turn the Kindle into the Zune of e-book readers.”

Nitrozac and Snaggy of Geek Culture’s Joy of Tech offer this summary:

kindle

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Mr. T in World of Warcraft Ad

Posted on 2007-11-21 by Greg

Everyone remembers Mr. T from The A Team. He does a great job in a new ad for World of Warcraft. “Shut up fool…Maybe Mr. T hacked the game and created a Mohawk class. Maybe Mr. T is handy with computers, had that occurred to you Mr. condescending director? I’m Mr. T and I’m a Knight-F Mohawk.”

Thanks Matt Miller of urbanpug.com.

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Decisions, Decisions, which Wiki to implement

Posted on 2007-11-16 by Greg

It can be a formidable task to decide which Wiki to implement. According to WikiMatrix, there are 97 worth considering. WikiMatrix allows you to compare Wikis side by side on the basis of many important factors. WikiMatrix also has a wizard that guides you through the decision process. In my situation, I needed to compare MediaWiki, PhpWiki, and TikiWiki. I still have a hard time making up my mind. Oh well, mabye I’ll use the wizard.

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What some people think

Posted on 2007-11-15 by Greg

some people think that we should not help people that live below sea level.

some people think that we should not help people that place houses in the path of fires from Santa Ana winds.

some people think that we should not help people that live in areas prone to earthquakes.

some people think that we should not help people that live in areas of water shortages.

some people think that we should not help people that live in high rise buildings.

some people think that we should not help people that live in areas subject to harsh winters.

some people think that we should not help people who don’t live where we live.

people change their thinking when they need help where they live.

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