Architecture +

JeanRicard.Broek@yahoo.com (JeanRicard Broek) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:16:00 +0000

As noted by Erica Driver and Sam Driver in a recent blog post, SL Enterprise customers have nearly two dozen alternatives they could choose from after they look at the Lab's "unique offering and pricing scheme" (I am being kind) . The list they provide on their about page makes for interesting research.

Here is the partial list of Emersive Environment/Simulator vendors covered by ThinkBalm

Altadyn
American Research Institute, Inc. (ARI)
Applied Research Associates (Virtual Heroes)
Breakaway Ltd.
Engineering and Computer Simulations (ECS)
Forterra Systems
IBM
Icarus Studios
InXpo
Linden Lab
Nortel
ON24
OpenSim
ProtonMedia
ReactionGrid
Sun Microsystems
Teleplace
The Value Network (VenueGen)
Unisfair
VastPark
Virtual Italian Parks (Moondus)

Progress Continues at realXtend

JeanRicard.Broek@yahoo.com (JeanRicard Broek) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:01:00 +0000

image from: The Extending Reality blog

0.0.2 preview release of next-generation realXtend software

Clipped from the post at The Extending Reality blog

Here you can see some of the interesting properties of the new technology. A couple of the users are logged in using the traditional realXtend avatar service, others have OpenSimulator authentication and one of them uses the new OpenID-based method. One of the most important features for us is the ability to easily move between worlds without dependencies to central authorities and OpenID seems to fit the bill quite nicely.

Reactions to Enterprise 2.0 & SLE

JeanRicard.Broek@yahoo.com (JeanRicard Broek) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:55:00 +0000

The image/cartoon from http://geekandpoke.typepad.com/geekandpoke/2008/04/good-reasons-fo.html : is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 License.

I clipped the following to illustrate the Corporate take on Web 2.0 and Second Life Enterprise

Enterprise 2.0 technology is only starting to become really enterprise ready

Because of a lack of understanding of how the modern enterprise infrastructure works, my belief is that a lot of the existing E2.0 offerings have gaping holes in them that must be addressed if they are to survive long term in the environment they wish to play in beyond the proverbial "server under someone's desk". I was surprised, for example, during the Google Wave keynote that the speaker referred to the desire to put as few restrictions in place in the security model as possible to ensure the maximum degree of collaboration. Examples like these, among many others, show that there is a long way to go before these tools can be used pervasively in the enterprise without serious repercussions. I am certain that regulations around archiving, audit, document retention, privacy regulations etc. along with technical requirements like delegated authentication, encryption, etc. can not be adequately addressed with many of these tools in their current ungoverned state in the enterprise and this will be a liability in these tools adoption until it's addressed.

It should be noted that the more sophisticated vendors absolutely understand what they need to do to be viable in a truly enterprise context but they are decidedly in the minority. Linden Lab, creators of the Second Life 3D virtual world, had a major announcement at the conference in unveiling Second Life Enterprise that had nothing to do with sexier avatars, but instead decidedly focused on the unsexy topics like providing a private and secure virtual environment with enterprise manageability capabilities. Similarly, Novell, long a networking and infrastructure stalwart from Enterprise 1.0, unveiled Novell Pulse, with a set of enterprise class capabilities on top of Google Wave. These vendors realize that completely unstructured capabilities that do not bolt into the enterprise mechanisms of governance have little chance for broadscale adoption.

above via: a twitter lead to:
Nenshad Bardoliwalla's Blog on Strategy-Driven
Execution

Nenshad Bardoliwalla was most recently the CTO for Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) and Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) at SAP

Move over Google Earth

JeanRicard.Broek@yahoo.com (JeanRicard Broek) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:59:00 +0000

Love this. Built in his spare time with a bunch of friends.

Sneak preview of an amazing three dimensional model of the entire planet on which anyone can build their own homes or shops anywhere on earth. It was built by a tiny team led by Michael Fotoohi, managing director of Micazook.com and a bunch of friends all working in their spare time (Take a bow .Daniel, Jarek, Bartek and Marcin and Lukas) . Think Wikipedia meets Google Earth (Google Earth it isn't) mfotoohi@micazook.com

via: Rita J. King via: Joshua S. Fouts via: Mal Burns

GPUs on the grid

JeanRicard.Broek@yahoo.com (JeanRicard Broek) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:49:00 +0000

image from CL Lab" www.cse.buffalo.edu

Russ Miller, principal investigator at CI Lab, stands in front of the server rack that holds Magic, a synchronous supercomputer that can achieve up to 50 Teraflops.

Enhancing the performance of computer clusters and supercomputers using graphical processing units is all the rage. But what happens when you put these chips on a full-fledged grid?

Meet “Magic,” a supercomputing cluster based at the University of Buffalo’s CyberInfrastructure Laboratory (CI Lab). On the surface, Magic is like any other cluster of Dell nodes. “But then attached to each Dell node is an nVidia node, and each of these nVidia nodes have roughly 1000 graphical processing units,” said Russ Miller, the principal investigator for CI Lab. “Those GPUs are the same as the graphical processing unit in many laptops and desktops.”

That’s the charm of these chips: because they are mass-manufactured for use in your average, run-of-the-mill computer, they are an extremely inexpensive way of boosting computational power. That boost comes at a price, however.

“These roughly 1000 processors on each nVidia node are programmed in a synchronous process, basically bringing us back to programming methods of the 1960s,” said Miller.

Magic has been hooked up to Open Science Grid and the New York State Grid since February.

via: http://www.isgtw.org/?pid=1002127 - iSGTW is an international, weekly, on-line science-computing newsletter

From the mouth of CAD guy

JeanRicard.Broek@yahoo.com (JeanRicard Broek) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:56:00 +0000

" So, conclusion for today. I’m thinking about immersive world where design, engineering and real people are all connected to dream, design, plan, build and manufacture life around us. And, in my view, this is a perfect time for today’s CAD/PLM/BIM vendors to think about a future of their products. How to catch up before Google’s next leapfrog? Just not to find themselves in place of GPS manufacturers today."

via:Oleg Shilovitsky (Note: Oleg says "I work at the Dassault Systemes Group, the content included in my blog is my own personal opinion, experience and thoughts and it does not necessarily reflect the opinion or position of my employer.)"

No need for a Viewer - Nvidia does Rendering on the Server

JeanRicard.Broek@yahoo.com (JeanRicard Broek) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:52:00 +0000

A quote by Tom Hale caught my eye and I have not gotten it out of my head, to paraphrase he said that Linden Lab was preparing for the next wave of technology. I have reported on mental images & Reality Server before but it is time to revisit it, because this just may be the next wave of innovation Tom spoke of.

About mental images: mental images, founded in 1986, is the recognized international leader in providing component and platform software for the creation, manipulation and visualization of 3D content. Its world leading rendering and other technologies are used by the entertainment, computer-aided design, architecture, scientific visualization, and other industries that require sophisticated images primarily as part of their software products and application services. mental images is a wholly-owned subsidiary of NVIDIA Corporation with headquarters in Berlin, Germany, a subsidiary in the United States, mental images, Inc., and a subsidiary in Melbourne, Australia, mental images Pty. mental images has a multinational staff of top qualified engineers exclusively dedicated to basic research and development in the area of 3D graphics and 3D Web Applications and Services technologies. For more information, visit www.mentalimages.com.

via: dcccafe.com

Couple this with Nvidia's Next Gen NVIDIA Fermi (GT300) Chip and you get Ray Tracing

Fun - Making RL Virtual

JeanRicard.Broek@yahoo.com (JeanRicard Broek) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:26:00 +0000

the fun theory

We believe that the easiest way to change people's behavior for the better is by making it fun to do. We call it The fun theory. Do you have an idea that uses fun to change behaviour? Enter now for the chance to win €2500. http://www.thefuntheory.com

ACTA - The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

JeanRicard.Broek@yahoo.com (JeanRicard Broek) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:49:00 +0000

This image has been released into the public domain by its author, Zcrayfish. This applies worldwide.

In June 2008 Cory Doctoro reported in Bong Boing

Secret super-copyright treaty MEMO leaked

Yesterday Cory reported:

Secret copyright treaty leaks. It's bad. Very bad.

The internet chapter of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a secret copyright treaty whose text Obama's administration refused to disclose due to "national security" concerns, has leaked. It's bad. It says:
* That ISPs have to proactively police copyright on user-contributed material. This means that it will be impossible to run a service like Flickr or YouTube or Blogger, since hiring enough lawyers to ensure that the mountain of material uploaded every second isn't infringing will exceed any hope of profitability.

* That ISPs have to cut off the Internet access of accused copyright infringers or face liability. This means that your entire family could be denied to the internet -- and hence to civic participation, health information, education, communications, and their means of earning a living -- if one member is accused of copyright infringement, without access to a trial or counsel.

* That the whole world must adopt US-style "notice-and-takedown" rules that require ISPs to remove any material that is accused -- again, without evidence or trial -- of infringing copyright. This has proved a disaster in the US and other countries, where it provides an easy means of censoring material, just by accusing it of infringing copyright.

* Mandatory prohibitions on breaking DRM, even if doing so for a lawful purpose (e.g., to make a work available to disabled people; for archival preservation; because you own the copyrighted work that is locked up with DRM)
The ACTA Internet Chapter: Putting the Pieces Together

Some Background:

In 2007 a select handful of the wealthiest countries began a treaty-making process to create a new global standard for intellectual property rights enforcement, which was called, in a piece of brilliant marketing, the "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement" (the agreement does not cover currency fraud).
ACTA is spearheaded by the United States along with the European Commission, Japan, and Switzerland — which have large intellectual property industries. Other countries invited to participate in ACTA’s negotiation process are Canada, Australia, Korea, Mexico and New Zealand. Noticeably absent from ACTA’s negotiations are leaders from developing countries who hold national policy priorities that differ from the international intellectual property industry.

Act on ACTA: Tell the New Congress to Open the Secret IP Pact

Revelations about the secretive Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) have emerged, and the news is not good for technology users or digital rights. Instead of concentrating on physical fakes and fraud, recently leaked draft language suggests ACTA will provide expansive powers to customs authorities worldwide to search and seize digital technology at the border on suspicion of IP infringements and to widen the criminalization of previously civil IP law way beyond profit-seeking pirates. An entire section of the trade agreement would create new regulations over the Internet and DRM -- but those details remain secret. Write to your representatives now to demand that Congress bring transparency to this clandestine pact.

via: EFF.org

Cory Ondrejka posts his concerns on his blog and twitter

Twitter:

# You can let your Senator know that innovation, progress, and economic strength matter to you http://bit.ly/33fvpgabout 4 hours ago from Brizzly
# Oh, and if you want to be paranoid about world government conspiracies, ACTA should be driving you crazy http://bit.ly/2xnafkabout 4 hours ago from Brizzly
# Are you willing to sacrifice US innovation and competitiveness at the altar of overbroad copyright laws? I'm not http://bit.ly/2xnafkabout 4 hours ago from Brizzly

Blog:
change is hard

I get it. Change is hard. Creative destruction and innovation can destroy your current business.

Tough. Progress is going to happen. Accept it. Embrace it. After 18-months in the music business, I fully understand the pain and fear upheaval brings, but I also saw how really understanding what change is doing to your business opens up new opportunities. Music companies can do a better job today than ever before of connecting artists and fans around the experience of music — and I know they don’t need a huge copyright land grab to it.

Which makes the current leaks from the ACTA negotiations deeply disturbing on two levels. First, willfully blocking your nation from building on inexorable technology trends is an act somewhere between criminal and treasonous. Second, as nations we all face enormous challenges around healthcare, war, displaced peoples, energy, disease, education, poverty and famine. We have a unique moment in history to capitalize on the worldwide excitement about the Obama Administration.
via: http://ondrejka.net/where%27s%20my%20obama/2009/11/04/1124-change-is-hard.html

Can SL Play in China?

JeanRicard.Broek@yahoo.com (JeanRicard Broek) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:07:00 +0000

Report: No World of Warcraft in China

China's General Administration of Press and Publication, the government arm that regulates online gaming in that country, has reportedly suspended approval for NetEase.com Inc. to operate Activision-Blizzard's online role-playing game World of Warcraft, putting the future of that game in China in question and likely impacting the bottom line of both NetEase and Activision.

According to Reuters, "the regulatory body posted a statement on its Web site that demanded the NetEase affiliate company that operates World of Warcraft to suspend charging users to play the game, and disallow new account registrations." The news service goes on to say. "NetEase launched the World of Warcraft game commercially in China on Sept. 19. Roth Capital Partners analyst Adam Krejcik said the move by the GAPP was not surprising, given previous reports that the agency was displeased that the popular multiplayer online game was launched without its approval."

Via: Virtual Worlds News

Machinima

JeanRicard.Broek@yahoo.com (JeanRicard Broek) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:24:00 +0000

A few recent finds for all those readers that do not know the richness of talent, and reach of expression to be found in Second life. For many of us this collection captures Second Life way better then the sterile opening scenes found on the official Second Life web site.

Farewell from Tommylee Nightfire on Vimeo.

News & Links

JeanRicard.Broek@yahoo.com (JeanRicard Broek) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:22:00 +0000

UNITY:

The Unity engine is becoming even more affordable to independent and hobbyist developers, as Unity Technologies has retired the $200 "Unity Indie" offering and replaced it with a free license, simply called Unity.

http://unity3d.com/

DAZ 3D

DAZ 3D has frequently been contacted by game developers looking to use DAZ 3D assets in their games and virtual worlds. Current licensing (EULA) limits the use of DAZ 3D content. An examination of the issues surrounding this topic including licensing and compatibility raises a number of additional questions. DAZ 3D would like to solicit input from members of the community who are in game development. Check out this video -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woo3YWE9vtM

If you are interested in 3D game or virtual world development, please take a few moments to take a short survey.

http://survey.daz3d.com/index.php?sid=77755&lang=en

If you are a member of game development communities, feel free to share this survey link with those that may be interested in using DAZ 3D content in their game and virtual world projects.

At Home [Flickr]

jeanricard.broek — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:05:41 PDT

jeanricard.broek posted a photo:

Just a snapshot

Ogre 3D in the browser

JeanRicard.Broek@yahoo.com (JeanRicard Broek) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:43:00 +0000

Ogre is a popular C++ 3D engine, with bindings to many languages. It is the graphics rendering engine used by realXtend.

These tutorials show you how to use Ogre 3D, both from C++, and from a Java applet embedded in a web page.
Read more:

Via: http://www.brighthub.com/hubfolio/matthew-casperson/blog.aspx

Clarity & Market Focus for Second Life

JeanRicard.Broek@yahoo.com (JeanRicard Broek) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:42:00 +0000

Image of the 2010 NMRA Train Show and Convention exhibit area

I clipped a part of a comment by Justin Bovington to a blog post this morning By Dusan Writer: Second Life and Unity: Time for a Developer’s Conference?. Now Justin may know more then i do, or even Dusan about "The Lab's SL 2.0 Stratagy".

His comment does make it all so simple and clear. He gives three general uses cases for three communities of interest, three separate approaches to SL & therefore three markets segments.

As we enter 2010, this will change will bring about a more defined set of entry points:

EDUCATION – second life and privately managed entry points

ENTERTAINMENT – P2P content creators, defined by Xtsreet and Second Life.com

ENTERPRISE – (b2b) privately managed solutions, delivered by the SL develop community

With education and enterprise a hybrid of managed privately hosted environments and “code name: Nebraska” behind-the-firewall solutions. Entertainment’s front door with be via the traditional Second Life.com experience.

These defined entry points – I believe greatest epoch change since 2003 – will give us all the opportunity to focus and build relevant experiences. This is arguably why the media still has trouble categorising Second Life. Some of the press still see Second Life as a “story” from 2006-2007, with little to no definition beyond Google researched news threads. As we know, it’s not that black and white. Hence why I think 2010 will be the tipping-point. Definition creates Clarity*.

Beyond the SL developer community, we need to crossover from “niche conventions” and take this into the mainstream clients/sales/development conference circuit. Virtual Worlds are coming of age as a business tool; we’re seeing real ROI and real tangible benefits. The longer we hide this in the wilderness, the longer it will take to adopt. The current “niche conventions” are peer-to-peer meet ups, with no purpose other than showcasing platforms.

Success will come from proving to the market that these “platforms” have relevant and developed “solutions” for sector specific business use and challenges. This is the reason we created Immersive Workspaces, a complete solution for the collaboration and virtual business development.

The Entertainment entry point is the world of the fantastic designers, artists and artisans who create the rich tapestry of content and ideas in Second Life.com They need a celebration and party once a year, with the opportunity to network and attend workshops. Linden Lab can use these sessions as a “listen and learn” with the community. This would also be a great place for Adobe or Autodesk to run master classes.

Education needs it’s own convention, maybe again within the established Education conference circuit? I will leave the educators to answer this one, as they do it well and with gusto.

Justin Bovington – CEO – Rivers Run Red the creators of Immersive Workspaces

*This is a contentious statement, one though I feel needs to be said. If Second Life delivers what I think it can in 2010, it will be “game over” for the majority of the other vendors/platforms. Especially the ones that leverage off a similar immersive experience.

I was initially perturbed by finding myself labeled a consumer by Linden Lab last year and now finding myself placed primarily in the "Entertainment" category but just maybe this time the label fits. I once told someone Second Life reminded me of the Model Railroading hobby and culture.

If SL continues as is in the Entertainment category without finding a significant reason for growth we should all stop thinking content creation & micro-transactions will change the internet & the world & see it as just a hobby, the digital version of Model Railroading.

Model Railroarding Magazine 2008 circluation: 146,648
National Model Railroading Orginization nmra.org Membership: 14,486

Can Dell Outdesign Apple?

JeanRicard.Broek@yahoo.com (JeanRicard Broek) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:37:00 +0000

Today at the Windows 7.0 show the buzz was over the Dell Adamo Laptop

News & Links - Sketchup Pro

JeanRicard.Broek@yahoo.com (JeanRicard Broek) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:12:00 +0000

Professionals are using Google Sketchup Pro with amazing results. Someday, hopefully soon, we can provide the right platform so complex models and use cases like these two examples will find there place in RealTime Virtual Worlds.

Google SketchUp Pro Case Study with Mortenson Construction. SketchUp Pro is software for creating and presenting professional 3D models. Learn more at http://sketchup.google.com/pro

Process images of Silvershadow's SketchUp model of the ship HMS Snowberry.

Click here to view the slideshow

All modeling was done with SketchUp; rendering was done with VRay. Read all about it on the SketchUp Community Forums at http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=20385

Both via: http://sketchupdate.blogspot.com/

News & Links

JeanRicard.Broek@yahoo.com (JeanRicard Broek) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 15:39:00 +0000

This will be a new category for the blog - Just headlines and links, a bit like a collection of Twits.

News:

Little know - Hidden cookies

JeanRicard.Broek@yahoo.com (JeanRicard Broek) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:11:00 +0000

You Deleted Your Cookies? Think Again

August 10, 2009

More than half of the internet’s top websites use a little known capability of Adobe’s Flash plug-in to track users and store information about them, but only four of them mention the so-called Flash Cookies in their privacy policies, UC Berkeley researchers reported Monday.

Unlike traditional browser cookies, Flash cookies are relatively unknown to web users, and they are not controlled through the cookie privacy controls in a browser. That means even if a user thinks they have cleared their computer of tracking objects, they most likely have not.

What’s even sneakier?

via: Wired (Note: Wired.com uses Flash cookies)

Some flash LSO-cookie properties in short...
they are never expiring - staying on your computer for an unlimited time.
by default they offer a storage of 100 KB (compare: Usual cookies 4 KB).
browsers are not aware of those cookies, LSO's usually cannot be removed by browsers.
via Flash they can access and store highly specific personal and technical information (system, user name, files,...).
ability to send the stored information to the appropriate server, without user's permission.
flash applications do not need to be visible
there is no easy way to tell which flash-cookie sites are tracking you.
shared folders allow cross-browser tracking, LSO's work in every flash-enabled application
the company doesn't provide a user-friendly way to manage LSO's, in fact it's incredible cumbersome.
many domains and tracking companies make extensive use of flash-cookies.
These cookies are not harmless.

------------------------- IMPORTANT -------------------------
IF YOU PERMIT DELETION OF LSO's,
THEN COOKIE-STORED INFORMATION LIKE
GAME SETTINGS OR LOGIN DATA (YAHOO SEAL)
MIGHT BE LOST! MAKE SURE THAT YOU EXCLUDED
IMPORTANT COOKIES FROM DELETION

Via: firefox addon BetterPrivacy 1.29

RealTime - Reacting to Wave

JeanRicard.Broek@yahoo.com (JeanRicard Broek) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:26:00 +0000

STEVE GILLMOR: Where are we going to see it first?

RAY OZZIE: Within Microsoft? You’ll probably see it in the consumer properties first.

STEVE GILLMOR: You mean in gaming?

RAY OZZIE: It will start in the realm of gaming because gaming tends to be very twitch-level interactive. But consumer communication properties — I mean, the nature of communications nowadays — I’ll give Facebook probably the most credit here. We used to think of communications as relatively partitioned from other modes of things that we do, meaning it’s a message and it’s addressed and a message that you would send to someone. But Facebook, because of their investment in photos, because of the nature of how they implemented the Wall and the little previews of things, and then ultimately apps, they’ve blended social media and communications in a way that kind of informed everyone that communications are richer when you bring other media into it, and I think that’s tremendous.

Via: Steve Gillmor - TechCrunchIT

3Ds Max - Improves the Pipeline for Content Transfer - One step Remains

JeanRicard.Broek@yahoo.com (JeanRicard Broek) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 02:22:00 +0000

The Connection Extension for Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2010 design visualization software offers new and enhanced connectivity features.

Enhanced Interoperability with CAD Packages

Extensive Connectivity with Google SketchUp

via: http://ankitsurti.blogspot.com/

The remaining step is the import and use of these models in Virtual Worlds.

The Race to 3D - Keeping up on WebGL and Adobe

JeanRicard.Broek@yahoo.com (JeanRicard Broek) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:11:00 +0000

Image from http://blog.vlad1.com/

EA/Maxis recently added COLLADA export of Creature designs to their popular game Spore, and they have a Sporepedia where players can see others' creations. Right now, those previews are just as images. With WebGL, they could be fully 3D, even animated.

Staying current with WebGL:

Canvas3D is precursor to WebGL, which was recently added to the Mozilla nightly trunk and will soon be included in a future release of Firefox. Along with the Firefox implementation, a WebGL implementation landed in WebKit fairly recently.
Firefox 3.6 is set for release before the end of this year. It's not a major upgrade, but will tweak the JavaScript engine and upgrade the look of the browser, among other new features. After 3.6, Mozilla will release Firefox 3.7 early next year, with major update Firefox 4.0 due out in the second half of 2010.
Via: http://blog.vlad1.com/
Via: http://www.itpro.co.uk

C3DL is a JavaScript framework that can load Collada models and perform other high-level tasks. C3DL is being developed by a team at Seneca University using Mozilla's early WebGL prototype.

Motionview is a web based application for making the motion capture cleanup process more efficient. It uses Canvas 3D and C3DL for its 3D viewer.

The Navarra Group needed some help to make this sort of preview for their client Bedlam Games. It found it in Toronto's Seneca College, where an open source project has been seeking ways for 3D content to be viewed in Web browsers without the need for a plug-in.
Researchers and students have been working with Mozilla Corp. on the library and are pleased to see it put to practical use.

“The purpose of the project was to save costs and make it easy,” says Evan Weaver, chair of School of Computer Studies at Seneca. “We had a library to use to draw 3D stick figures.”

Navarra Group's Web application displayed 3D stick figures acting out the motion capture data for Bedlam Games. Producers could pan around and view these stick figures from different angles – an advantage they wouldn't have if the preview was only in 2D.
Via: http://www.itbusiness.ca/

Seneca is located in the Greater Toronto Area.

Via: http://senecacollege.ca/about/index.html
What is C3DL?

The Canvas 3D JS Libary (C3DL) is a javascript library that will make it easier to write 3D applications using canvas 3d. It will provide a set of math, scene, and 3d object classes to make the canvas more accessible for developers that want to develop 3D content in browser but do not want to have to deal in depth with the 3D math needed to make it work.
via: http://www.c3dl.org/

On another front we look at Adobe
The Open Screen Project
So, how can you build a contextual application? The Open Screen Project is a $10 million market development fund offering grants to developers to accelerate the creation of contextual applications. According to Adobe, "The fund is seeking applications in the following focus areas: entertainment, business, social networking, productivity, gaming, travel, multimedia, health, finance, weather, sports, news, education, and more."

Obviously, there's a lot of room for innovation and experimentation. Past funded projects have included real estate mobile applications, virtual pianos, personal media publishers, and a guide to the annual Roskilde music festival. According to Maxim Antinori from Max Media Corp., "The convergence of support for Adobe Flash Player across many platforms, coupled with the improvements in distribution on the mobile platform in particular, make Flash the best choice for developing applications that need to function across a wide range of devices."

Adobe is actively accepting proposals. So if the idea of defining a new class of application and manifesting the history of convergence appeals to you — do it.
via: www.openscreenproject.org
The Adobe® Flash® Platform will provide the consistent runtime environment envisioned by Open Screen Project partners. This technology was chosen because it has the widest reach in the world across operating systems and devices, a community of more than one million developers, and leading authoring tools.

The Adobe Flash Platform
The Pipe:
BT has said a further 1.5 million homes can expect to get broadband speeds of up to 100Mbps by 2012. BT is in GB.
BT is more than doubling its plans to roll out fibre to the premise (FTTP) broadband, which has the potential to deliver speeds of up to 100Mbps.
Via: http://www.itpro.co.uk/616114/bt-doubles-fibre-rollout

A Proposed New Open Viewer Platform

JeanRicard.Broek@yahoo.com (JeanRicard Broek) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:06:00 +0000

Basic Concept - Draft

This is an architectural concept that forms the basis for simple GUI design for a new 3d+ Viewer platform.

This post was inspired by Steve Jobs visit to Xerox Parc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0UjU0rtavE

Naali UI Mock-up Contest

Browser developers currently rely on standard, interpretive Web languages such as HTML and CSS to render content in a browser window, and programming languages such as C to create the graphical user interface, or “chrome.” Chrome refers to the hard-coded features on the periphery of the browser window, including menu items, buttons, and the address bar.

Quote above via : http://news.cnet.com/ March 26, 1999

The basic concept is to model and build “a 3D viewer interface” based on the appearance and functionality of a standard browser and sneakily add the 3D viewer not in the browser window but through a common tab interface open it in a window.

How it works:

Using the look and feel of a browser, the tabs do slight of hand magic. The app may also do sandbox memory management (ala Chrome). It looks and feels like a browser (ie: Google Chrome modeled below) but it blows you away in the first ten seconds.

Once you enter the first address bar url from preinstalled “favorites” or by cut and paste, a log in page appears, displayed as a sidebar widget app. After authentication it opens a second tab, fills in a URL for a 3D server and opens a 3D viewer in a large window. A third tab may then be triggered to open. The login app slides down one slot and its tab slides over for a new tab and widget/app/window to appear above the login app. This new top left window may host your fiends list, an avatar appearance selection page or inventory treeview, maybe your last chat session. The First 30 minutes Experience is reduced to 30 seconds

The above image is a composite of existing apps found via Google images and is not intended to specify any specific GUI elements or appearance such as icons, color etc and is used to illustrate the concept only (clips are used as Fair Use - no copyright infringement is intended)

This platform immediately creates a level playing field, interoperability and 3D / web page equality. The design is not for a viewer in the browser or a web page driven by java or a web page on a prim using Webkit though it will support all these as they develop. It does not try to fit a square peg in a round hole or solve all the worlds’ problems with a single application. It is a platform/framework that hosts both 2D and 3D apparently seamlessly, if not in fact. It is “the container/manager” for a browser window, PC apps & 3D viewers. It is designed to be modular and open from the ground up.

Benefits:

The interface is incredibly simple, but can be expanded easily to accommodate complexity as needed for modeling or editing.
The interface is not foreign and the key GUI elements like the address bar and back button are immediately usable, familiar and well tested. This provides comfort.
It drastically reduces learning time and customer/user acceptance.
It is forward thinking: The address bar will become core to all apps, navigation in the future (IPV6)
It is very Sticky (load it for browsing and get the viewer loaded at the same time, sneaky) This single load can be used for more then just going inworld making this viewer the #1 app for users.
Efficient: No need to start two separate exes on a PC one browser & one viewer and fight for memory and CPU, though this may still happen since this is not a full OS (yet)
Single download/install… or the upper first applet might host a list of Apps to plug-in, like, Blender or a widget , etc.
Being modular and open would engage existing developer communities,markets and users to immediately add value, third party add-ons, apps, etc.
The browser or other apps are not reinvented, developed/maintained/supported directly. They are only hosted in this new container app and are still independently developed by their own communities.
Can be marketed as demonstrating the convergence of open source work by providing a simple paradigm & framework.
As a container the app leverages work from Google, Apple, qt, Ogre, etc without getting into turf battles or determining a winner. It is modular and open for plug-ins, even if the largest plug-in is an 8 million line of code browser or a small embedded flash widget.
Tabs could include the a 3D viewer, a Browser, maybe Blender, Sketchup, Twitter
It is simple to understand with three form factors in one.

Full screen (think IPTV)
Page sized window(think Word or a Web Page or a view into VWs)
Widget/mobile size app) this form factor for sidebar widgets should be the same as mobile apps. This will be as familiar to iphone/smartphone users as the browser is. The possibilities are exciting.

The app can be made full screen visually replacing the desktop, think what this would be like on a 50 inch HD/IPTV combined with Microsoft Natal.
Does not reinvent the wheel, makes a truck out of car parts, We just invent the truck

Process Manager:

Image source: Google Chrome Introduction Comic

Use the Google Chrome(Webkit/QT) browser interface with tabs and process manager as a starting point

Functionality/Features:

Tabs open widgets, 3D Views, 2D web pages or full apps like Blender
All sidebar widgets have associated tabs above and an address bar. For example my inventory can be from a different URL or a local HD or localhost
Optional standard [File—Help] Text Menu /w dropdowns for each tab based on the apps properties
Each tab has an address bar with back button etc.
Highlighted (active) tab, highlights the border of the active area (sidebar apps or main window)
Sidebar apps scroll down, can have many more open then visible. If out of sight become icons, tabs still visible (scrollable)
Integration with and drag and drop between windows/widget apps & the main window (the region view or web page) (Usecase: the main widow is Facebook or SL and the widget is a twitter stream or skype).
Make the upper area look like a browser, with menu bar and address bar, same operation as all browsers. Allow the addition of custom tool bars like in browsers for use as HUDS or editing tools.
Widgets (mobile window apps) can be attached/docked on the right or left side
Sidebar widgets scroll down and new ones are opened and compress into icons or a bar if out of sight.
The primary upper sidebar window (shown as upper left) would be as customary in most browsers or IDEs. It is used primarily to provide hierarchical tree views of the asset db, or list views like in world avatar radar, objects within range, search result lists. running streams like API feeds etc.
Examples are:

Inventory (It would be great to see an object hierarchy of all linked parts of a large object)
Friends List ( with grouping like chat)
Favorites
landmarks
Groups
Search result listings
HUDs
Totally open for third party developers to innovate, add value

The lower sidebar would be for display of Item selected in the list above like:

Code/notecard/email editor
Edit 3D Object properties
Texture Previewer
Inventory 3d objects previewed w/ simple spin the object around
User profiles
A tabbed chat window
Your radio playlist
Media previewer
etc, etc

All tabs full page views or widgets can be ripped off (ie: non-model) and re-sized, placed to the side outside the main viewer window in a separate window for multiple or large screen users (Like chrome does it now).
Selected items in the sidebar can be dragged into the main 3D window and rezzed inworld or placed in context of a web page field or app like blender or Sketchup
The bottom of all windows have engraved simple icons for functions/addins like windows systray
The blue background (The app itself) can be skinned along with all components.

Conclusion:

The use of APIs, widgets and plug-ins has opened the net again to innovation. Widgets on the desktop have not stuck. CMS platforms support both pluins and widgets, browsers support toolbars & plug-ins. Now smartphone platforms are now in a race to gather the most & best “apps”. What is needed in the future is a single platform, a smarter platform. Right now I want a browser with sidebar widgets for Skype, Twitter etc.

This is the future Google OS? Will Linden Lab, Microsoft or Google do this? Maybe. The hints are very strongly pointing this way but I have no real idea. I do think LL, Nokia, and Google would be interested and keep an eye on realXtend for sure if they did this.

This Architectural concept supports open source & is standards based, not revolutionary, but evolutionary. It could support multiple smart apps/widgets & 3D viewers, even Second Life. You could have multiple tabs open, two different 3D viewers running at the same time, with enough memory/bandwidth. You could even be logged into multiple regions at the same time. Think about it…

Brand it: “KISS”, “Glass”, or snarkily “The Real Windows”. By any name you give it, it adds meaning to the name realXtend

Copyright October 2009 John R. Pagan, All rights Reserved

How does the Venor - Autodesk ruling impact 3D content sold in SL?

JeanRicard.Broek@yahoo.com (JeanRicard Broek) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:39:00 +0000

Below clipped from : The Electronic Freedom Foundation

"It’s Still A Duck: Court Re-Affirms That First Sale Doctrine Can Apply to “Licensed” Software
Building on a prior ruling, a federal court has re-affirmed that a Seattle man was not infringing copyright law by re-selling software he obtained from an Autodesk customer.

The ruling is bound to frustrate the copyright industries, which have struggled for years to convince courts and their customers that the only thing you “buy" when you buy software is a limited and temporary right to use that software under certain conditions. In other words, they claim buyers aren't owners.
The distinction is no mere technicality. Under the Copyright Act, owners of copyrighted material are given substantial rights in the particular copies they purchase. One of the most important of these protections is the "first sale" doctrine, which says that once you've acquired a lawfully-made CD or book or DVD, you can lend, sell, or give it away without having to get permission from the copyright owner. Without the first sale doctrine, libraries would be illegal, as would used bookstores, used record stores, video rental shops, CD-swapping communities and so on. "

Linden Lab should understand this considering the background of Kapor et al. The question now is can a licence ie: no transfer exist under a sale.... and can a seller restrict export of legally purchased content off the SL platform? This is open for discussion.....

We need to Open the Pipeline to Virtual Worlds Now.

JeanRicard.Broek@yahoo.com (JeanRicard Broek) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 17:50:00 +0000

It is rumored that Linden Lab is looking at .dae (Collada) as the file format of choice for importing 3D meshes. When? SOMEDAY TBD. While we wait we often forget that the major players in CADD, AutoDesk and Dassault Systemes are deeply experienced and vesting in 3D. So while you scan the horizons of virtual worlds and pride yourselves in having virtual stores (most of which won't even rez now) take a long look here -> http://www.3dswym.com/.

Don't be surprised if one of those in the CADD/Digital Content Creation (DCC) industry or maybe two or three thunder into the landscape before Linden Lab and the diverse, poorly funded open source communities can get it all together to support a common standard for import/export and exchange of content.

While merchants of Second Life worry about theft of their creations, hundreds of thousands of object creators and industry in general will not be denied their own megaregions, with PLM and BIM tools. Below is a little clip from mid September about 3DVIA.

From Tokoyo Japan: 3Di, Inc. Releases Open Source Virtual World Viewer for OpenSim:

JeanRicard.Broek@yahoo.com (JeanRicard Broek) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:55:00 +0000

News Release
30 September 2009

3Di, Inc. Releases Open Source Virtual World Viewer for OpenSim: Offered Under Developer-Oriented BSD License and Aimed at Driving Industry Adoption of 3D Internet

3Di, Inc., which develops and offers 3D Internet solutions (Head office: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Satoshi Koike; hereinafter referred to as 3Di) has today launched an open source project, named 3Di Viewer “Rei”, for viewing and interacting with OpenSim-based(*1) 3D virtual worlds in web browsers. With this public release of open source technology, 3Di hopes to assist industry adoption and standardization of 3D Internet technology. Using the same core technology as 3Di's commercial product 3Di OpenViewer(*2), the open source project 3Di Viewer “Rei” offers software developers an open platform for delivering multi-user 3D Internet content inside the web browser.

Multi-user 3D virtual worlds have achieved success in focused application areas, but they have not yet achieved broad penetration and universal adoption, like traditional 2D web media. 3Di Viewer “Rei” addresses this problem by integrating 3D content inside of traditional 2D web pages, allowing existing 2D content to merge with or migrate to 3D content.

According to Norman Lin, Technology Group Manager at 3Di: “We have been receiving quite some interest about the possibilities of a viewer running inside the web browser. Also, the OpenSim community has been looking for a new BSD-licensed(*3) viewer solution. By offering our viewer as open source under the BSD license, we’re hoping to help accelerate the standardization and industry-wide adoption of 3D Internet technologies.”

Since 3Di Viewer “Rei” is open source, application developers can customize the platform as needed. 3Di Viewer “Rei” is currently designed for use with OpenSim-based virtual world servers, such as the commercial 3Di OpenSim Enterprise or the community-supported open source OpenSim.

via: http://3di.jp/en/news/2009093001.html