Tech titans seek virtual-world interoperability
Get ready to hop your avatar onto a hoverboard and fly seamlessly between Second Life and There.com. To buy armor or gold pieces in World of Warcraft or EverQuest II with actual dollars or euros. Or to pack up your 3D models from a Multiverse virtual world and take it with you to Gaia Online.
Source: Daniel Terdiman, CNET News.com, October 12, 2007
French argue over aerial robot surveillance
Not everyone in the French government wants to use flying robotic surveillance drones next year as part of a plan to triple police surveillance efforts. ELSA (a French acronym for “light device for aerial surveillance”) is a 4-foot aerial robot that would be used to watch people in Paris and towns connected to Paris by the Metro subway system.
Source: Candace Lombardi, CNET Tech News Blog, October 15, 2007
Forget the OLPC: Here’s a 30-children-per-desktop solution
In the past 21 months, the unknown Redwood City, Calif. startup, [NComputing Inc.,] has provided low-cost computing to half a million students in 70 countries. [...] NComputing claims that it can provide computer access — whether for Windows XP, Linux or even Mac boxes — for as little as $70 per student, a fraction of the $200 price tag that OLPC, along with competing laptops such as Intel Corp.’s Classmate PC and Taiwan’s Asus’ Eee, are struggling to meet.
Source: Eric Lai, Computerworld, October 15, 2007
Gore’s Current TV enlists Web users to shape news
Current, the television network backed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore, is embarking on a new Internet strategy to enlist viewers in submitting video and commentary to create broadcast TV news. The network, which already lets professional videographers submit video news segments, is going several step further on Monday by soliciting user feedback over the Web and converting submissions into online news as well as pieces for broadcast.
Source: Eric Auchard, Reuters, October 16, 2007
Google Earth: How Google maps the world
Type “77 Massachusetts Avenue 02139″ into Google Earth, and you’ll see MIT’s Great Dome in all its glory. Click a button to zoom out, and soon you’ll see the state capitol, the celebrated Zakim Bridge, and maybe some other college up the river. These images, which are shared by Google Maps, are actually a combination of aerial photos and satellite imagery — and a lot of postprocessing. Technology Review interviewed engineers at Google and at DigitalGlobe, the company that supplies Google’s satellite photos, and did a little bit of reverse-engineering to figure out how it works.
Source: Simson Garfinkel, Technology Review, November/December 2007
World’s Oldest Blogger Celebrates 108th Birthday
Born in 1899 in Broken Hill Australia (outside of Sydney), Riley started her blog — what she calls a “blob” — in February of this year. The entries consist largely of Riley’s transcriptions to her friend Mike, consisting of her day to day events and stories for her 108 years of life.
Source: Brian Heater, AppScout, a PC Magazine blog, October 17, 2007
BT ‘futurologist’: AI entity will win Nobel by 2020
You might not agree with him. You even might not believe what he says. But British Telecom does. Ian Pearson has been BT’s futurologist since 1991. His job is to imagine where today’s technologies will lead us. Artificial intelligence, genetic modification, intelligent viruses, imaginary civilizations and Second Life 10.0, as well as some pretty nasty scenarios involving robots like the Terminator are all real possibilities he included in his 2006 Technology Timeline. In this interview, Pearson talks about his profession, explains why he doesn’t think we will understand intelligent machines when they finally arise, and warns to the big ethical dilemmas our technological civilization will have to face sooner or later.
Source: Peter Moon, IDG Now, October 15, 2007
