03.04.08
Posted in Hardware at 10:47 pm by Alice Pretchet
We are about to take on our own internet server and beefing up the company intranet, I remembered that Candice use to work at one of the big computer manufacturer / retailers and she went from retail level computer sales to corporate accounts. I was amazed when I heard how much these big companies spend on networking equipment. Routers costing more than $1,000 each and many companies needing dozens of those, along with multiple servers, switches and more. She is no longer working with this big manufacturer and now my company is finally in a position to consider getting our own servers online and the network equipment to handle lots of internet and intranet traffic.
So I called Candice and she recommended looking into used cisco equipment. She said that I could probably get the same warranty and save big money by going for used network equipment, and often times the places that offer the used or refurbished equipment are getting pretty new pieces that are being sold to them for next to nothing from big companies that have just gone out of business. I know that Cisco makes industrial strength equipment that is meant to take the stress of constant use, so that’s exactly what I am recommending to Derrick.
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Posted in Fun, Misc Tech at 2:21 pm by Alice Pretchet
It seems like second life had a bunch of press for a while and then kind of faded in the media, yet there were / are tons of people that are exploring it everyday. This week I have seen two more virtual worlds in the news, and I am surprised that there will be so much focus on making them kid friendly.
From the wired campus blog:
Indiana U. Receives Grant for Development of Virtual World for Children
The Indiana University School of Education has received a three-year, $1.8-million grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to expand the virtual world Quest Atlantis, which is designed to help foster creativity, social responsibility, and compassion in children ages 9 through 12.
Watch Sasha Barab, the university director of the Center for Research on Learning and Technology, discuss Quest Atlantis.-Andrea L. Foster
Looks like virtual worlds will continue to be developed, I wonder how much better they can get? It seems the the VR worlds I’ve explored are already very good, perhaps these initiatives will not be as much about making new VR or 3d technology, but about creating community. I wonder which VR worlds will end up with the most regular users.
and From Techcrunch:
EA-Land is the new, free Sims Online (TSO). The 12 different cities from TSO are being moved to EA-Land and the game area is being expanded to be “100 times bigger than the previous size of any city.” Existing TSO users will be able to purchase land in EA-Land before the new (reincarnated) world is open to the public with paying TSO users becoming “EA-Land subscribers” in a similar fashion to the way Linden Lab charges for land in Second Life.
Users of EA-Land will have the ability to upload custom content and (more importantly) buy these customizations from other players. Sounding a lot like Second Life? It gets better:
There is one significant difference though to Second Life: EA-Land won’t become the wild west as EA will be “approving all of the content [so] this user content is safe to be viewed by everyone.”
I remember when there were several social networks trying to coral the most users, and it seemed for a while that myspace had won the most people, but wasn’t necessarily the best social network software running. I would have bet that tagworld or me.com would have prevailed in that arena since the user interfaces seems better to me. There were many things that shaped myspace as a popular destination for the majority of users, and I believe a large part of that was myspace staying out of what people were putting on their pages (and by extension their 2d virtual world). With EA pushing to keep it rated E for everyone, I hope that take two will make an adult version and perhaps base it on Grand Theft Auto where it is not for everyone, so me and my friends can have a VR world that is not kid friendly, and therefor more fun to run around in.
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Posted in Misc Tech at 2:17 pm by Alice Pretchet
I was talking to Crystal the other day about remote PC access, telling her that I could access her PC from here and fix the problem she was having with her photo editing software. She loved the idea, and then got a little freaked out by the fact that I could control her PC from my place. Once I explained that she would have to send me a request to do it, and that request would have a time limit set for the amount that I could access her computer over the internet, she calmed down and embraced the idea. After the first session of her watching me control her pointer on screen from w remote location she decided she wanted to be able to do this as well, accessing her computer at from work.
This apparently has saved her a ton of time, now instead of editing 100 photos not knowing which ones she is going to need for presentations the next day, she simply downloads a list of thumbnails to her USB drive, then she can show the group the thumbnails, and when it is decided which ones to touch up and use in projects, she uses remote access to pull the full sized images up from her home PC while at work.
Crystal has been using Remote Access and has been raving about the ability to control and use her home computer from work, I’ve heard that they are considering a small business account to allow everyone int he group to do the reverse and access the work computers from home as well. She is basically using her home computer for remote storage, and I found that remote PC has a neat remote storage program that comes with each account. Danny could be using this as a way to have backup music available for his DJs. I’m sure there are other people who would use this remote storage in other ways as well. It amazes me that so many people are not familiar with the remote control abilities that are available with today’s fast access internet services.
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03.01.08
Posted in Videos at 1:57 pm by Alice Pretchet
Found one of my favorite songs of all time on You Tube the other day and i am going to book mark the page here on my blog so i can always find it and do you can enjoy it as well. The song is by The Primitive Radio Gods and is named “Phone Booth” the song helps me pass by time when i am doing repetitive work behind the computer. i know all the words to it so I am able to sing along with it and it is not so loud that I have to turn down the bass to wake my family while they are a sleep. if you have never heard this song before or seen the music video then click over and listen or watch.
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