~w00t~

Reblooged from Dusan Writer’s Metaverse

Building a 3D World One City at a Time: Google and Microsoft Chip Away at a Global Build

April 16, 2008 — dusanwriter

Google continues to map its own 3D version of the world, one city at a time, encouraging municipalities to load up databases of buildings in order to gain the benefits of engaging the public in planning, fostering economic development, and more.

Their latest release of Google Earth includes a familiar sort of interface element to those used to the HUD based movement commands of Second Life:

The latest release also includes lighting, so that 3D landscapes can be viewed by time of day. Hardly Windlight, but adds depth and texture:

Meanwhile, Microsoft continues to play catch up to Google Earth in what seems like an ever escalating war to add the best features. Their integration with 3DVIA (similar to Sketch Up but from the same group who brought us 3D XML and Virtools) allows for more detailed texturing of models.

The metaverse isn’t here yet because your avatar isn’t allowed to enter.

GeoSimPhilly

credit: geosimphilly.com Found via: Digado

“The terabytes of imaging data are being used to build a 3D model of central Philadelphia, down to the last cornice, mailbox and shrub.”

- A. Eisenberg,
  The New York Times

http://www.geosimphilly.com/index.aspx

The "Other" Grid

Many Second Life’s users think of “The Grid” to mean interconnected virtual world servers, especially Linden Lab’s grid, this term cannot be trademarked by Linden Lab. Not only has the term been in use to describe the electrical grid and the Internet itself. and then Grid computing (The OpenGrid Forum), there is now from CERN, originators of the Internet their own Grid.

All these Grids have one issue, “The last mile” The Internet service providers, tel-cos, and cable giants with their antiquated equipment and expensive pricing models.

Again this shows that the technology is here now to solve another piece of the LAG and all the client side rendering issues. It is businesses, the economy, the market, and those large companies & industries that hold back change not technology.

CERN Develops Possible Internet Replacement, Unfathomably Faster

source: www.dailytech.com

“Internet up to 10,000 times faster deployed, may see consumer use within a year or two

CERN, the Geneva-based particle physics center which spawned the world wide web in 1989, is looking to create the next internet, and has already laid down the essential ground work for it. Experts say it is sorely needed. Recent industry analysis, such as DailyTech’s recent piece “American Broadband: Pathetic and Disgraceful,” has revealed that most customer languish under poor data rates and high costs.

The new internet from CERN could change all that. The proposed system averages speeds of up to 10,000 times the typical broadband connection today. The new internet is known as “the grid” and could send the entire Rolling Stones catalog from Britain to Japan in two seconds, a scenario akin to the RIAA’s worst nightmare…..”

First generation warbots deployed in Iraq recalled after a wave of disobedience against their human operators

  

Iraqi War Robots Recalled Following Alarming Behavior

The TALON SWORDS robots are being shipped back to the lab after field reports that the machines would aim its weapons at friendly argets.  (Source: U.S. Army) Just a few weeks back there was a spirited debate over the ethics of deploying war robots in Iraq.  The machine gun carrying remote-controlled killing machines, TALON SWORDS robots, produced by the Army, were among the various robotic soldiers being experimentally deployed in Iraq.

Their deployment lead a major anti-landmine nonprofit organization to campaign against the deployment of the machines.  The protests were fueled by a discussion with a leading roboticist, Chris Elliot, who proposed that increasingly intelligent robots might be capable of committing war crimes.

Simpsons House In Real World

from: http://thecontaminated.com/simpsons-house-in-real-world/

remind me a greenies, but OMG this is RL

Can you Patent a Spatial Concept?

Patent

PILE UP^® was registered for patenting throughout Europe and in the USA in 2003. The preliminary checks have been carried out. The patent covers the spatial concept with the high-ceilinged living and outer area, and the flexible floor plan structure on a single level - this is not a maisonette model. The patent applies for the construction of PILE UP^® in all of its possible construction models.

remixed from http://www.zapco.ch

Copyright

Trademark: PILE UP® is a registered trademark in Switzerland, the EU and other countries.

Design protection / Patent:

PILE UP® is registered as a design on the basis of design laws in Switzerland, the EU, the USA and other countries the subject matter of patents applied.

Licences:

A licence-agreement is an option.

All rights owned by Hans Zwimpfer 2002 

Reproduction only with explicit permission

The above is posted based on Fair Use, as a social protest. commentary and to provoke intellectual discussion as per sections 107 through 118 of the Copyright Act (title 17, U. S. Code).

Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered “fair,” such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair:

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

2. the nature of the copyrighted work;

3. amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Sounds like SL to Me

reblogged from: anarchitecture  

Unsolicited Architecture.

Maybe no other professional sector is questioning its own legitimacy as frequently as architecture. Definitely, architects lose ground in today’s issues such as globalization, digitalization, ecology, consumerism and more. “The architect as a social engineer, as an organizer of social relationships, as the one who inspires political decisions as a professional power player in the game of spatial distribution appears to be a remarkable intermediate phase in architecture’s century long development.” (Volume #14, p.3, Arjen Oosterman)



Currently, architect’s creation is limited to designing esthetic spatial configurations. The project’s agenda, however, is already defined by the client: the program, the site, height restrictions, the budget, gross / net surface, energy values, etc.

Volume #14 – an architectural magazine by Archis + AMO + C-LAB + MIT … -presents the UNSOLICITED practice – an attempt to permit architects to reclaim their professional autonomy. How can architects switch from competent but powerless executors of assignments into entrepreneurs?



The magazine central part presents the Office for Unsolicited Architecture (OUA) founded by Ole Bouman and students of MIT. So what is “Unsolicited Architecture”? Think about architecture liberated from building:

1. Find a new territory.
2. Avoid clients, a site, a budget and a program.
3. Design the architectural object, the marketing plan, the financing plan.
4. Reflect.
5. Action.

Is this approach an appropriate alternative to design competitions? According to Architect Matthijs Bouw there are three types of architectural practice: architects who have a characteristic handwriting and are hired for it (the signature practices), extra-large firms which can offer a large variety of services and finally the “new” design consultancy. “This architectural practices enlarges its field of play by intervening in the building process at a different moment, namely during the formation of the first idea and the formulation of a scenario or assignments.” (Volume #14, Matthijs Bouw, p.10)

Although, Volume #14 features the portfolio of Unsolicited Architecture and a rich collection of examples (p.41-106), their implementation seems difficult. Do Unsolicited architects work out projects in advance? When there is no client - who will buy the designs? Maybe, the entrepreneurial architect has to be a risk-taker.

Wall*e