Scientific Progress Goes BOINC...
(The Title is a famous Calvin & Hobbes line and book title, but apropriate.)
I remember being one of the first to join the Seti@Home project. I installed it on a number of computers at one time, but forget about it over the years. (I also briefly flirted with the Distributed.Net client.) I just recently got reinterested with BOINC (the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing). BOINC allows you to pick amongst several great scientific endeavours to donate your computer's idle time to. When you install these you get some of the coolest screensavers that you can find, particularly when you can point at it and say "It's really doing something; this means something!".
The BOINC client is a bit funky (probably because it was designed by college students :-P), but once you get it installed it takes care of itself. One of the big problems for me was that BOINC didn't properly trigger the Windows Firewall "allow this program" dialog. It is real easy here to visit the Firewall Settings, Exceptions and Add Program. On the Installed Programs box BOINC was right near the top.
The LARC Plan
One of the things that I've felt it would be cool to do would be a Metropolitan Area-Scale combination of LARP and ARG elements. I've argued there is a fine-line between the two before, but I'll summarize things a bit here. Both game types build synthetic worlds on top of real world topography. LARP does this through game rules similar to those of a paper role-playing game (like Dungeons & Dragons or Magic: The Gathering), albeit with a focus on real time actions and props. The most common LARPs are the Vampire LARPs scattered around the country and fantasy tales held in forests and parks away from major civilization. ARG does this through interactions within communications media such as websites, phones, emails, et al.
By focusing on one Metropolitan Area you get more opportunities to interweave the two related types of game styles. (Some ARGs have attempted to do this on a national scale, by scheduling events in multiple locations simultaneously, but its much harder to organize.) The trade-off then is in the number of potential players that you can claim "out of the box" would play the game, should you try to pitch it for capital. Right now both game types are seen as niche gaming markets. Interestingly enough this means that for the most part they aren't very commercialized, and no one is really making money off of them. (Obviously, I see this as a fun place to try to commercialize, be the first to market, or at least first to market well, and attempt to cash in...) For LARPs, the largest organization, the major Rules organization, is NERO, which is basically a "Player's Guild"; not that they don't seem to make money, but most of the money appears to go right back ...
Compiler Architecture
Microsoft's work in progress Pheonix may have some interesting consequences in compiler architecture and design. The possibilities of having a unified, plugin-able compiler architecture are pretty vast... probably something that would be nice to have come thesis time, should I choose to explore somewhere in this area. Not that I have any particular ideas in mind, just that I find compilers fascinating.
Debating Graduate Work, Again
I still really haven't made up my mind on what I think would be the most interesting graduate study, assuming I decide to continue with graduate study. I'm not sure who to best ask for advice, either. I'm also not quite sure who's going to pay for it. I could really use some scholarship money, but my cumulative GPA still needs a point or two before I can really compete in that department.
Anyway, here's the possibilities I'm considering:
The Do Nothing Alternative: MEng
This is the easy, straight arrow graduate work in the field and department I'm already a member of. This is (full speed) 1 year from the end of the BSc.
Prerequisites
Nothing additional.
Engineering PhD
The CECS department is also hoping to push people towards this. I'm not sure its for me, because (among other reasons) I speak English too well and have social skills. Jokes aside, the PhD is not accredited and not "big name" enough to really be worth it other than the experience of doing a Dissertation.
Prerequisites
Nothing additional from the MEng, I believe.
MBA/MEng Joint Program
The University of Louisville's Business School has much more national recognition than the Speed School of Engineering. I don't have to search for a new school and 6 MEng Elective credit hours are gauranteed to double-count, or I can take two Business Electives and skip the MEng. This would be full speed 1.5-2 years (30 Credit Hours) from recieving the MEng, probably closer to 3 years. All UofL MBA courses are evening courses and aligned for those working full time; thus money might not be as much of a big deal.
Prerequisites
Courses: Accounting 201; Admissions Test: GMAT; Target Cum. GPA: 3.5 ...
Virtual Politics: The Power of Prayer
A lighter note related to my earlier Virtual Politics post: incarnating the virtual.
A New Generation, A New Workplace
I know that I've felt awkward in "traditional workplaces", and a USA Today story (via ACM Career News) has some good points on what so many of my Generation (the boringly named "Y", simply because it follows "X" alphabetically) are expecting of the workplace. First of all, I felt particularly striking was the "About Gen Y Workers" sidebar:
:High expectations of self: They aim to work faster and better than other workers.
:High expectations of employers: They want fair and direct managers who are highly engaged in their professional development.
:Ongoing learning: They seek out creative challenges and view colleagues as vast resources from whom to gain knowledge.
:Immediate responsibility: They want to make an important impact on Day 1.
:Goal-oriented: They want small goals with tight deadlines so they can build up ownership of tasks.
For the rest, I'm just going to quote the ACM synopsis, which I think pulls out most of the article's major points:
The 70 million or so members of Generation Y are expected to change careers faster than any previous generation, leading to difficulties for employers attempting to retain and recruit talented high-performers. In addition, "Generation Y is much less likely to respond to the traditional command-and-control type of management still popular in much of today's workforce." Most likely, this means that companies will need to foster a work environment that respects the "speak-your-mind philosophy" and independent thinking habits of Generation Y. Failure to do so could mean a loss of these employees to other companies which are more flexible to the needs of Generation Y.
The article also catalogues the characteristics of Gen Y: an understanding of benefits like 401(K) retirement plans; a focus on attaining a work-life balance; an embrace of constant change (new jobs, new careers ...
Virtual Politics
My Dad, like several others I know, is a big West Wing fan, and so I ended up catching some of the tail end of "the event" tonight. For those that, like me, don't pay much attention to network television drama, the event tonight was that there was a live "Presidential Debate" between the two major West Wing candidates, portrayed by Alan Alda and Jimmy Smits. The one hour program was broadcast uninterrupted "commercial-free", from the sponsorship by American Express. There was a live audience, the NBC News Live logo in the bottom corner of the screen, and if I had been randomly flipping channels I might have felt, for some brief period, that I was watching some real debate. There is a Campaign website for the two candidates of the TV show, and several satirical "attack ads" scattered across satirical news organizations, particularly thanks to the cross-network "President Battle" going on between ABC's fledgling "Commander-In-Chief" (with Geena Davis as a female president) and NBC's West Wing, which is now into the beginnings of its third Presidential term (the show equates 4 seasons to a term, similar to the 4 year President term).
I couldn't help but be somewhat impressed at the synthetic political debate that NBC put together. (Synthetic world design being a hobby of mine, after all.) They didn't go whole hog, by any means, but they at least put enough work into it that they really did a lot to twist the suspension of disbelief. At the conclusion of the show my dad said to me, "I think Vinick [Alan Alda's character] is going to win," and he looked somewhat upset with that. Of course its a TV show, so he quickly followed with, "They just gave him more lines," as ...
Video of the Gorillaz preforming as 3-D holograms at the MTV EMA
This is the preformance Gorillaz did on stage using the same technology here as they're going to use in their 2007 World Tour. On a side note, Gorillaz won an award for best band.
watch video
For anyone who hasn't yet encountered this weird pop band that melds several styles of music: the "band" is virtual. Most of the "players" are not, in the strictest sense, real people. Unlike The Bots (@ Magnatune), which is meant as satire and play, Gorillaz takes a more serious approach. The edgy band has been winning awards, and as seen in the linked video, has even performed "live" at awards shows (using an old school projection technique, nonetheless).
I spend most of my days dreaming of weird dreamlike ways to meld synthetic and real worlds, and so virtual bands are just cool.
