Google Glass: Freaky, geeky tech toy aims to save lives. SAN FRANCISCO — Walk around this tech capital and you'll spot someone wearing Google Glass, a device that spawns everything from envy to eye-rolling as debates rage over the wearable computer's pros (hands-free tool) and cons (distracting privacy invader).
But don't smirk too fast: One of those early adopters could wind up saving your life. Around the country, coding-capable fans of the device are quietly taking it upon themselves to leverage Glass's futuristic properties for good. In Michigan, a programmer is developing software that allows Glass to monitor a driver's eyes and send visual and auditory alerts at signs of drowsiness.
In North Carolina, a fireman has spent his own time and money to develop an app that routes incoming 911 calls and the locations of fire hydrants to his Glass. And in Texas, a health-care entrepreneur is working with anesthesiologists to make their rounds safer and more efficient. Often those problems aren't critical. Rumor: Deus Ex's Spector working on 'epic' Mickey Mouse project.
The Copyright Rule We Need to Repeal If We Want to Preserve Our Cultural Heritage - Benj Edwards. The anti-circumvention section of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act threatens to make archivists criminals if they try to preserve our society's artifacts for future generations.
Perhaps by now you've heard about the campaign to repeal the anti-circumvention section (1201) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This most recent challenge to the DMCA arose from a recent decision by the Librarian of Congress to discontinue a three-year exemption that made cell phone unlocking legal. Opponents of the DMCA anti-circumvention provision claim that the law threatens consumer control over the electronic devices we buy, and they're right. But the stakes are much higher than that. Our cultural history is in jeopardy. That's because the DMCA attacks one of the of the fundamental pillars of human civilization: the sharing of knowledge and culture between generations. The DRM Problem Common wisdom would tell you, "Don't copy things without permission, and everything will be fine. " PANEL DISCUSSION: Controlling Culture. Www.intelligentagent.com/archive/IA4_2reviewbangthemachinechapman.pdf. How to preserve games for the future? Recreate them.
In a new Gamasutra feature, Stanford curator Henry Lowood admits while many games were not adequately preserved, or can never be, recreating data that they need to run is an option.
In cases where games are damaged or data has been corrupted, Lowood and his team will sometimes hire data recovery specialists to see if they can salvage things. In other cases, there may be a need to simply recreate data from scratch. "The strategy of 'recreation' has been developed most strongly in the area of new media art and digital art with museums," Lowood said. "There have been installations in the past that were set up and you can't really install things in the way they were in the past. It's impossible. This is how you shut down your MMO's servers for good: Glitch's graceful exit.
Developers and players pour themselves into building up MMOs, but the games can't always support themselves, and then those worlds blink out.
All too often, MMOs close but don't offer closure for the workers who spent so much time on them—nor for the players who expected to keep playing for years. For instance, City of Heroes went dark on November 30 with little in-game fanfare aside from what the players brought themselves. Glitch, the nearly indescribable (and indescribably delightful) browser-based open-world sandbox MMO, closed last night after three years and two betas.
Developer Tiny Speck gave the quirky, innovative game a memorable ending that made the blank stare of the servers more bearable for loyal players and development team members. This is how they did it. Play it straight When a game shuts down, it can be an emotional blow to players. Tiny Speck anticipated such reactions. Continue to give while asking for nothing more "It's a classy way to handle this," says IDC's Ward. Stanford Careers. University Libraries Aspiration and accomplishment define Henry Lowood’s career at Stanford.
In his more than three decades of employment, Henry has progressed from a half-time librarian specialist to professional librarian positions to his current curatorial roles—as well as part-time teaching assignments. “It seems like there is, on the part of the various people who supervise me and the directors in the library, a lot of attention to the individual talents and wants of the person.” But he has seen more than job advancement along the way. “What starts as a vision can become a foundation that you can build on for more work in the future,” says Henry, “such as me saying ‘Wouldn’t it be great to have a collection on the history of Silicon Valley?’”
His latest goal: an extensive project regarding the preservation of a 15,000-piece collection of digital games and interactive software.