Posts from — June 2006

Researchers teach computers to turn 2D images into 3D:
Filed under: Robots

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University appear to have solved a problem long thought impossible, teaching computers to turn static 2D images into 3D models. It was apparently a hot area for research in the 1970s but was virtually abandoned in the 80s after attempts to devise the machine learning necessary proved too demanding for the computers of the time. The key to Carnegie Mellon’s research, apart from better machines, is the ability for computers to detect visual cues (such as a car) that can be used to differentiate between vertical and horizontal surfaces — easy for us humans, but enough to turn even the most powerful computers into an incoherent mess. Apart from turning your vacation snapshots into a whole new experience, one of the big applications for this technology is obviously robotics, where it could boost their vision systems, improve navigation, and basically endow them with one more skill necessary to keep us in line after the uprising.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

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this is nifty… imagine what it could do in virtual worlds for perspective management.

Map of the Day: Best of NYC Maps:

The NYPost has a feature about maps mashups, and they even give a shoutout to our Gothamist Map Mashup (look for a re-release next month!) We’ve been tracking NYC mashups for months– and currently have dozens in our maps archive. Here are our top ten mashup picks:

Ghostbusters map, Bike routes map, Murder map, Flood map, Beer map, Gawker Stalker map, NYC Streetart Map, Atomic Bomb map, Garbage map

And of course, the NYonTap bar/subway map, which still deserves the “best NYC mashup” award.
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some of these could be very handy…

science on a sphere – data visualization & visual culture – information aesthetics:
a 4-projector system that displays images on a spherical screen. the Science on a Sphere system can display & animate vast amounts of visual data from the Earth, Moon, Sun & the other planets. the sphere is suspended by thin wires, so that animating the image data gives the illusion of a free-floating, rotating world.
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I helped a bit with the secondlife simulation of this. it is a great project.

FRIDAY IS BLOOMSDAY!:
Bloomsday on Broadway XXV: Passion! Politics! Plus Samuel Beckett Centennial Celebration!

This Bloomsday marks a quarter century of annual Joycean reveling at Symphony Space, and will celebrate the life, language, lusts and literature of James Joyce’s Ulysses over twelve-plus hours. This year’s focus is on Mr. Leopold Bloom’s spiritual son, Stephen Dedelus (aka James Joyce), with readings from Ulysses, Portrait of the Artist and Dubliners. We will also celebrate the centenary of Joyce’s spiritual offspring, Samuel Beckett, with readings from his work. The marathon concludes with Fionnula Flanagan reading the complete uncensored monologue of Molly Bloom until the wee hours of the morn.
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yes it is.

Tutorcasts | Bringing together the ‘nets resources for the community.:
Tutorcasts is meant to be a repository (and directory) of screencasts available for educational purposes. If you would like to become a part of this group, please sign up and post your screencast information.
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this sounds like a great idea.

SLA 2006 Conference Blog:
Springer Launching New eBook Collection

Springer eBook Collection Originally uploaded by mesmerini.

Today I had the opportunity to meet with representatives from Springer who gave me a demo of their new eBook Collection.

I was already a bit familiar with it because my own library is buying it and I had a chance to look over the beta Web site a bit and give my own comments about it. My initial reaction was positive and I liked what I heard from the Springer reps as well.

The Springer eBook Collection will launch next week on June 20. Here is a sneak peak of the user interface as it is right now. Access is through SpringerLink. Search results are subdivided by subject, publication, author, editor, online date, etc.

Springer’s product is different from some eBook vendors I’ve used in that they allow unlimited copying of the ebooks. Some vendors severely limit the number of pages that can be copied, so that roadblock has been eliminated. The Collection isn’t a subscription–a library will own the material it buys and can store it locally if it chooses.

Springer advertises this Collection as “the world’s most comprehensive online scientific book collection.” 10,000 books will be available in 2006 (which includes 3,000 titles from 2005 plus all imprints transferred from netLibrary) with 3,000 added each year.

The Collection includes eBooks, eReference works (handbooks and “major reference works”), and eBook Series, and is divided into 12 subject collections with no overlap between them. A heavy chunk of that is in STM, but titles from Humanities & Social Science are included as well.

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i hope our handbooks are in there….

OA book series from the U of Helsinki:

Books, money and milk cartons :
For about 20 years, she has been a quietly formidable philanthropist. Her gifts – nearly £70m so far – have often gone towards human rights projects in the third world, where a small amount can be a significant windfall. But recently she has been branching out. Last spring, she launched Portobello Books, which aims to publish “activist non-fiction” as well as some fiction. Then, in the autumn, she bought Granta – both the magazine and publishing house. While Granta’s significance may have waned in recent years it remains a literary kingmaker. This makes Rausing, its new owner, a major player in British cultural life.
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the world needs more people like her.

Busch Macht Frei:
A sign on the front of the US prison in Guantanamo Bay reads “Honor Bound to Defend Freedom.”

A sign over the gate of the Fort Dix stockade, where war protesters were jailed during the Vietnam days: “Obedience to the law is freedom.”

A sign I saw in 1979 on the Grady County courthouse in Chickasha, Oklahoma: “The Safety of the State is the Highest Law.”

A sign I saw on a billboard in Franco’s Spain in 1958: “Sin orden, no hay libertad.” (Without Order, There is No Liberty.)

A sign beside the gate at Auschwitz: “Arbeit Macht Frei.” (Work Makes You Free.)

And so it goes.

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the slip and slide of doublespeak transforms the meanings of freedom into the meaning of slavery and horror. i always try to confront my students with what it could really mean to be free and equal in society and why they might not be free or equal now. if we don’t take an active stance against the reconstruction of freedom, freedom of body, freedom of conscious, freedom of community, we will never have the benefits of our world. i should say that the market does not equate with freedom, nor does laboring, nor does subservience to the state or other forms of obedience. consenting to the state is one thing, obedience is entirely different.

PCs to developing world ‘fuel malware’ | The Register :
Programs to send PCs to third world countries might inadvertently fuel the development of malware for hire scams, an anti-virus guru warns.

Eugene Kaspersky, head of anti-virus research at Kaspersky Labs, cautions that developing nations have become leading centres for virus development. Sending cheap PCs to countries with active virus writing cliques might therefore have unintended negative consequences, he suggests.
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the law of unintended consequences…..