Project Wonderland : Sample Shape Tutorial

Hi folks... Today I am working with a Project Wonderland tutorial on developing a basic module. http://wiki.java.net/bin/view/Javadesktop/ProjectWonderlandWorkingWithModules05 To get to this point I had to download the source and module system code, compile, and test and try them out. I was having problems for awhile with errors in the server output. Eventually today I figured out that in some cases when the server doesn't shut down properly, read and/or write perms on some log files may be hosed and prevent proper startup next run. Here's me trying out the PDF Viewer module, before I go off on the current tutorial material.

And here's me after completing the steps in the tutorial to download, build, install, and test the shape sample module.


Pretty simple! So my next steps are to:

1. Generate ideas for what I would like to create a module for.
2. Continue inspecting the server logs and code in order to keep getting more familiar with the inner workings of the infrastructure.
3. See what work has been done or is being planned on things like application performance and monitoring.

See ya next time!

Singularity U : Phillip Rosedale

Watching the Singularity U talk from Philip Rosedale, now formerly of Second Life, on YouTube. Singularity University... This talk was uploaded to singularityu's channel on youtube on 01/31/2010.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3LFqX6YNY0

Its an enjoyable talk and about every 5 minutes I hear something that perks my ears up.

~7:00
* Take control of the atoms in the real world as the real world becomes more malleable

~15:00
* As we take control of the atoms in the virtual world we can convert creativity into money

~16:00
* Yes! To hell with conference calls. Phillip describes ...

~20:00
* Memory Palace

~26:00
* Building vs. buying, 1 out of 1000 in music business is listened to, is that a social norm.

ThinkBalm

I found a neat new company to research and keep a 3-D eye on. It's called ThinkBalm:

http://www.thinkbalm.com/

As stated on the website, the mission is:

"ThinkBalm offers independent IT industry analysis and strategy consulting services."

And specifically this is in the area of "work-related use of the Immersive Internet." This means that they are doing research and analysis and consulting in 3-D web technologies like virtual worlds and other like technologies. There's also a LinkedIn group, which is where I found out about them in the first place whilst browsing the profile of someone else who works at IBM. The group is a community for discussion and brainstorming around the aforementioned ideas.

http://www.thinkbalm.com/community/

Tonite I visited their island in Second Life, the ThinkBalm Data Garden.



They display some nifty 3-D data visualization examples, specifically around data regarding virtual world adoption in business. There's a neat activity regarding barriers to adoption that I can agree with, specifically in getting users interested in the technology and the problem of inadequate hardware.

I think the data visualization is what draws me in here. I've seen a few different data-viz technologies in Second Life. Being a programmer and having written a few intermediately complex scripts myself, I'm extremely curious at what the technologies and programming aspects are of the mechanisms. It's also really really cool to see a set of data represented in 3-D. It's not a new idea, of course, but the technologies are new enough that there are lots of companies doing research and development in this area. But it's really cool to see a company say, here's data on the research we did, in a 3D representation, which is totally appropriate for a virtual world company.

I found a report that they just published:

http://www.thinkbalm.com/2009/05/26/thinkbalm-publishes-business-value-study/

Check it out if you have time. There is an event coming in October for people new to the LinkedIn group to get to know each other. If I'm not on a real-work meeting at the time, I will attend and blog about it then!

Smarter Technology : Green Phosphor

http://www.smartertechnology.com/c/s/Smarter-Technology-Virtual-World/

http://www.youtube.com/user/arkowitz

Many Eyes

Reference Material for Project Ideas

Here are a few links I'm working with to mull ideas. I still need to finish a couple demos but I spent some time today looking around at these. I'll surely play around with the JavaSound API and JFugue, and see what I come up with for ideas to use on the SPOT.

JavaOne 2008 session:
Jamming with Java Technology: Making Music with JFugue and JFrets TS-5263

SunSpotWorld Forum Posts:

SCAPE: sun Spot Controlled Audio Performance Environment

Using Sun SPOT to create music in JFugue

Collaborative Ambient Environment with SUNSPOT

OK. Back to messing with some code examples to get my feet wet, then on to Java audio APIs.

Completed Tutorial

I just now completed the Sun SPOT Quick Start Tutorial. The AirText demo was pretty cool, and if that's the new Hello World of the 21st century, then finally we're getting somewhere! ;-) If I had a digital camera I'd display my results here, but I don't.

The end of the tutorial suggests a few other demos to play with before continuing on. One is the BuiltInSensorsDemo, which is said to contain all of the Java import statements which you will need and it illustrates how to instantiate and use all of the sensors on the demo sensor board. Another suggestion is to look at the RadioStrength demo to learn more about using the radio.

It is also suggested to look in the /Demos/CodeSamples directory, which has a number of demonstration applications that each go into detail on a a single type of sensor or device.

Following that, I will dig around in the manuals per the final suggestion in the tutorial.

I've scoped out the Sun Spot World forum postings and there are a couple ideas there that I'm interested in participating in or otherwise extending. I will note those when I'm ready to dive into them after finishing the suggested material from the tutorial.

Getting Acquainted With The SunSpot

Hi folks, welcome to my new blog about my work with the SunSpot from Sun Microsystems. Here's the URL to check it out:

http://www.sunspotworld.com/

Tonite I am finishing getting the software and drivers installed on my computer. I will try out the demo applications next. After that, then this blog will get interesting as I write my programs to try out my ideas for using the SunSpots. I can't wait!