Second Life is an Internet-based virtual world which was launched in 2003. It was developed by Linden Research, Inc. The goal of Linden Research, Inc is to create a world like the Metaverse described by Stephenson, a user-defined world in which people can interact, play, do business, and otherwise communicate.

The clients of Second Life program are called Residents. Second Life provides an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse. Residents can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items and services from one another. Second Life’s virtual currency is the Linden Dollar and it can be exchanged for real world currencies. Now more than 20 million accounts have been registered.

Sometimes Second Life just likes an online game but actually it is not. It does not have points, scores, winners or losers, levels, or most of the other characteristics of games.

Here is the Second Life tutorial video about “What is Second Life”? by SusiSpicoli

–Robin Lu

Today, I started to search for places that offered a decent amount of free space where I could upload I wide range of file types. There are many free ones out there, all with different storage sizes and interfaces. My student workers usually use FileDen or Archive.org. These are great tools, but I was looking for more free space. The two storage and hosting sites that I really liked where MediaMax and Multiply. The two are different, but are very useful depending on how you want to store and share you media.

MediaMax (I liked this file storage site a lot.)

-It offers 25 GB of free space.
-You can upload videos, music, text files, zip files, pdf’s, images, really anything.
-You can share your files via email through MediaMax, or you can host your file. Hosting your file provides a link. If you click on this link, you can view and play the video or the file.
-You can add restricted access to your files. In the Hosting folder in MediaMax, you can add a password. You can restrict IPs as well.
-You can stream your video files and force streaming as the only way for your viewers to see that video.
-You can add as many folder as you would like to organize your media and files.
-You can upload a 10MB file (the max you can upload for one file).
- You can download 1GB per month on MediaMax
-Sync files on your computer with MediaMax

The File Manager in MediaMax is the main place where you upload/download files, edit files, host files, and change settings. Having this interface makes it easy to manage and organize your storage space.

Multiply

Multiply is different in that it takes a social network approach to storing files. It’s a place where you can share you files with friends and family.
-Unlimited storage space.
-You can add blog posts, images, videos,
-You can search and view what other members of Multiple are sharing
-People can comment on the stuff you share on your Multiply page.
-You can categorize your files by tagging them.
-You can write reviews.
-You can limit to whom you would like your files published to. You can make them public, or restrict them to your network, your contacts, or certain individuals.
-Friendly and easy to use interface. Reminds me more of a social networking site.

Out of the two, MediaMax has more features that I am looking for in a storage site. Take a look at both and see which one will work for you. Enjoy!

-Angel Brady

I was recently reading an article by Kate Greene titled: “Flash Memory Moves onto the Desktop: Flash memory is moving from iPods to desktops and laptops, providing a performance boost and the potential for instant boot-ups” about flash drives being used as a supplement to magnetic drives. If you have attended our CII sessions on USB keys, imagine having that same technology integrated into your desktop. In this article, Samsung, a big developer in flash memory and flash memory manufacturing, has begun shipping a hybrid drive, which integrates flash memory with the magnetic storage drive. What is the benefit of using flash memory? Flash memory is solid based, so you don’t have to worry about parts breaking off and jiggling around and damaging the hard drive. This makes it faster and more energy efficient. Manufacturers and developers say that this could make boot-up quicker and faster application start ups.

Imagine, a USB key being your whole hard in the near future, it’s something worth pondering. To read the whole article visit the Technology Review website or click on the link below to read more.

-Angel Brady

Thursday, March 22, 2007
Flash Memory Moves onto the Desktop

Flash memory is moving from iPods to desktops and laptops, providing a performance boost and the potential for instant boot-ups.

By Kate Greene
For the most part, flash memory has been used in small audio gadgets such as iPods and in portable USB drives. But a recent flurry of announcements from flash chip makers Intel and Samsung, among others, show that the technology has reached a point at which it is finally economical to integrate a small amount of flash memory–from 128 megabytes to 8 gigabtyes–into laptops and desktops as a supplement to the magnetic hard drive. The benefit, say chip makers, is faster boot times, faster application start-ups, and impressive power savings.

Since flash memory, which is created from silicon, is based on solid-state electronics, there are no moving parts, which makes it faster and more energy efficient than the spinning magnetic disks used in hard drives. Because flash is faster, it can be employed to cache frequently used files and applications. And since it is nonvolatile memory, flash can be used to store the start-up files for a system when the power is off, so that a computer can boot up much faster.

Earlier this month, Samsung, which is a major flash manufacturer, began shipping a device called a hybrid drive, which integrates flash memory into the same package as the magnetic storage. The hybrid drive was developed with Microsoft, says Steve Weinger, flash marketing manager at Samsung, and it’s designed to take advantage of Vista’s ReadyDrive feature, software that recognizes when flash memory is available and transfers data to it that would usually be saved on a hard disk. For instance, the software would instruct the system to download frequently accessed files to a flash cache instead of to the hard drive. In addition, when a file is saved, it’s immediately saved to flash memory. When the memory reaches capacity, the data is sent to the hard drive at once, reducing the number of times the hard drive needs to spin up, saving time and power. Samsung’s hybrid drives, which come with either 128 or 256 megabits of flash, are designed for high-end consumer desktops and laptops that run Vista.

Within the past couple of years, Intel has expanded its products to include flash memory chips. The company is working on a flash chip called Robson–expected within the year–that is also designed to work with Vista features. As with Samsung’s hybrid drive, Intel’s system will be able to save energy by less frequently using a hard disk by keeping a cache in flash, says Greg Matson, product manager for Intel’s NAND flash group. Robson is designed for consumer and enterprise systems that run Vista. Unlike Samsung’s hybrid drive, which integrates flash into the disk, Robson flash will be integrated into the motherboard of a computer.

In addition, Intel, Samsung, and others are working to completely replace magnetic hard drives in certain systems. Last week, Intel announced a solid-state drive designed for low-end servers and inexpensive computers that require less than eight gigabytes of data. Also, earlier this week, electronics maker Fujitsu announced that it is offering a rugged system with 16 gigabytes and 32 gigabytes for a cost of $500 and $1,300, respectively. Fujitsu’s target markets are the health-care, aviation, and delivery industries, for which flash provides another advantage: because of its lack of moving parts, it’s sturdier than magnetic disks and less prone to damage in rough environments.

There are still challenges before flash really competes with computers’ hard drives. For one thing, it tends to wear out over time, as files are written and erased from memory sectors. Currently, flash is capable of 100,000 rewrites per cell, and specialized software has been developed to spread out the wear on flash chips, says Ethan Miller, professor of computer science at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

However, Miller says, this software might not be good enough when flash is used as a hard drive supplement or replacement because operating systems tend to frequently save numerous small files, such as error files or system logs. But as prices continue to fall, Miller adds, flash will become a more common option, and he expects that more and more systems will be designed with flash in mind.

I am about to make a major push at Rider to try to make people aware of Open Source alternatives to Learning Management Systems like Blackboard. There are a lot of problems with Blackboard as an enterprise system, not the least of which is price, but also support issues, upgrade woes, questions of monopoly, and a real lack of innovation, despite the endless upgrades. Enter Moodle, an open source Learning Management System that is truly looking at what’s going on in the web 2.0 tools for inspiration of its features, like wikis, rss, flash video, and 3rd party service integration. I can, and will, go on about this, but in the meantime, take a look at what another instructor is saying about Moodle, because I couldn’t have said it better. Moodle is already installed at Rider – if you want to try it, just call me at x7145. As always, click the link for the whole story. – j.

Linux.com | Educators can manage course content with Moodle
Why use Moodle?

One reason I recommend Moodle is because it provides a full variety content of activities that teachers can add to a course. Moodle has more than 100 gradable activity modules and plugins such as chats, forums, and tests. While other gradable modules, such as flashcards, podcasts, LAMS, and galleries, are not included in the standard package, they can be installed as modules later. Moodle also allows administrators to back up and restore courses. Once created by a teacher, a course can be reused in subsequent years with little effort.

Another reason to recommend Moodle is because of its philosophical foundations. Moodle is designed with a social constructionist philosophy, a belief that people actively construct new knowledge as they interact with their environment, and that learning is more effective when you’re constructing something that others experience. In other words, collaborative learning and discovery are at the foundation of this CMS application. You may not agree entirely with this philosophical foundation — I do not — but educators in the sciences and in the humanities can accept much of this philosophy since the social constructionist philosophy lies somewhere in between the strict qualitative and quantitative extremes.

I recently read an article by Laurie Armstrong, Dr. Marsha Berry, and Reese Lamshed titled “Blogs as Electronic Learning Journals”. It was interesting to read about blog technology on a pedagogical end. I know when I am faced with a new piece of technology, I ask myself “What will I use this for? How will I use this technology?” These are the same questions that faculty members ask themselves when they here the word blog. How can I use this tool in my classroom? I was recently approached by a faculty member that wanted to use blogs as a type of journal. The faculty member already had an idea in her head how she wanted to use the tool. Hopefully an article like this will help her take into consideration all the aspects she will need to address when introducing blogs into her classroom. I recommend this article to anybody who either has an idea of how they want to use blogs in their class (since this article breaks it down, from design, to student reactions, to setting guidelines so the blogs are being properly used) or have no clue but would like to entertain the idea in the near future.

Here is a link to the article http://www.usq.edu.au/electpub/e-jist/docs/Vol7_No1/CurrentPractice/Blogs.htm

~Angel Brady

I am a big fan of portable apps. I like that I can save my preferences to a software program and move from computer to computer. With portable apps, you do not need to worry about resetting software preferences or even installing drivers or having a registration code. This is what makes portable apps powerful. One downside to portable apps is that some apps are Platform specific. I work on  Mac and Windows platforms. To launch a portable app., such as the popular web browser Firefox, I would have to download two packages, one that includes the Windows script to launch Firefox and the other package that includes the script to lauch Firefox in Mac OS X. I no longer have to face this predicament.

I recently downloaded the Mac and Win Cross-Platform portable Firefox. I can launch Firefox from either platform from my USB drive and all my preferences are intact. The only issue I came across was that I had to double click on the Mac OS X launcher twice to get the Firefox window to appear (a common bug commented on by the author). All the times I used it, it has not crashed yet. It is easy to install and you will need 42 mb of free space on your USB drive. If you are are interested in using this portable app, check out this link: http://www.theplaceforitall.com/portablefirefox/.

~Angel Brady

I recently had the benefit of working with a new service provided by Google, called Google Docs and Spreadsheets beta. I like the flexibility and ease with which you can create spreadsheets and text documents that are identical to those produced by other productivity software, like Microsoft’s Word and Excel.

I have documented my experiences and created a two part tutorial that you’re welcome to view. Part one is here, and part two is here.

One thing that you need to do before you can use this service is sign up for a Google account. After visiting the site and logging in, you’re presented with a similar interface to any spreadsheet or word processing software.

Some advantages of using Google Docs and Spreadsheets Beta include

• having the ability to publish the documents live on the web
• making them editable by other Google account holders whom you choose
• chatting in real time with other collaborators about your work
• inviting people to view your work in a protected format

You can also create an RSS feed for your documents to see if any collaborators made any changes at a glance.A new feature is the ability to write an e-mail and send it to an unique e-mail address that will create a document using the text of your e-mail. If you would to take a tour or sign up, check out the link here: http://docs.google.com

~Angel Brady