2nd Second Life

Posted on by Michael

Well, I made it.

Mary Bucy told me where to go, and I was able to search the location, teleport and land in the tiny space loaned to us by Montclair State for the PAWSOnline project.

So it’s a big TV, a poster and some teleport links. Honestly that’s pretty amazing considering how hard I’ve found it to do much in Second Life. When the summer gets a little further along, Mary should return and I can work with Rene to learn more.

At this point I don’t think many WOU students are actively in Second Life, but I’m not ruling out the possibility for the future.

Aye, that’s the SCRUM…

Posted on by Michael

SCRUM, the final frontier. These are the blog posts of the master nerd Ellis. His continuing mission – to research new technologies for civilization, to boldly blog … well, here.

Next week, we’ll be doing our first real SCRUM meeting. And when I say SCRUM, it’s really more of a modified, WOU-version of a personalized SCRUM that we’re altering mildly to suit the specifics of our highly customized environment.

aka – use what we can, blissfully ignore the rest 🙂

We’ll be starting our 3-minute SCRUM updates to keep each other up-to-date about current projects and future projects. We’re not all working on the same project, but we’ve found numerous cross-over examples where we really do need to know what others are working on. Let me give a few examples:

  • Person A develops a new tool to deal with situation X. Person B built that like so last year. Person A should have been trained at some point to save time.

  • Bill asks who is ready for new Project P. Michael needs to know who’s working on what so he can answer intelligently.

  • Person H is building an application that will eventually require Person L to do some work. Knowing this in advance removes surprises and helps folks coordinate schedules.

LinkedIn

Posted on by Michael

I admit it.
I finished updating my LinkedIn profile. I even uploaded a picture. Totally against my personal digital privacy policy, but there it is.

What would my wife say? Oh dear – she would get a big big smile on her face and say something like “Honey, isn’t that like a Facebook for professionals?”
And I would conceed. To be fair, I don’t check it daily (or more), I just log in twice a month and add new friends … I mean associates … I mean – oh heck, it is just Facebook – isn’t it?

Oh well… so here it is: My Public Profile

Anyway, it is a good way to stay in touch with folks at WOU, previously at WOU or otherwise. I haven’t uploaded a resume or anything – or even asked for references … but the idea is great. Recently I subscribed to 2 groups, which now send me daily digest emails … one of which is for Security professionals. I’m getting more email, but I think it’ll help keep me up-to-date in different areas.

Overall I’m pleased with the interface, security, privacy settings and general usage. Again, I’m not gonna be LinkedIn daily, but I might connect with a few more folks 😉

Tesseract Fort Construction

Posted on by Michael

The title? It’s from an old card game …

There it is – my masterpiece. I’m not a really hands-on, power-tool, Tim-Taylor-grunting-sort-of-guy, but I like to make stuff. This was a “swingset” we picked up awhile back, and I’m just getting around to finishing it. My son is just about the right age, so I’m excited that he has his own “wee-park” (wee is the sound you make on a slide, park is the rest). Anyway, it’s in, but still needs a lot of work. I’m going to build a new canvas top, have some foundation/stability work to do, then I’ll replant the grass so it really looks shiny 🙂

("new ", "second ", "after" ) * ("life")

Posted on by Michael

Math is neat.

Yes, YOU TOO can pay to get a life. A Second Life.

It’s been around for awhile, but I have re-engaged virtual reality. I made a new Second Life (SL) account, and have began to navigate. Recently, during a demo, I wound up on a snowy island with nerdy things, including (drum roll, please) an XKCD comic. It seems appropriate for them to be there. Big fan…

Anyway, so Mary Bucy told me that they were experimenting around with a bit of digi-space in SL I’m hoping to see what is there and see if UCS can contribute to this process in a helpful way.

virtual data center

Posted on by Michael

I know what your thinking …. VM’s, right?

Nada. Something more interesting. Zhijing and I are working on a new project. At first we were just harvesting and displaying server room temps. Then Brian got the internal temps via the iLOMs. Then Bill mentions comparing room temp to internal temp. But wait – it gets better.

I’m a real minimalist. I don’t like to carry stuff, jewelry, accessories – especially in my hands. But when it comes to web-apps, I’m a maximist. Pedal-to-the-metal, power-hungry UI super-monkey. I love it.

Anyway, so Zhijing and I are building a visual layout of the server room, where you can click on any rack to drill into it. Then you can see the front of the rack laid out just like the servers are, in order, according to size, RUs, etc…. THEN you can click on the server to graph it’s internal temp against (by default) the nearest room sensor, AND you can choose others.

That’s nerdy. I mean, REALLY nerdy — but I’m not done yet.

Why stop there? Maximism strikes again! Why not load MRTG (network data)? Adam wanted a link to click and open Remote Desktop. Server specs? Apps? DBs? THERE IS NOT LIMIT.

Can you feel it? (close your eyes) That’s the sound of the universe opening to you. Revelation. Yeah.

Possibilities.
Opportunities.
Efficiencies.

Excited? Heck yeah – it’s gonna be the next killa’ app. COUNT on it!

A little code. Some creativity, a splash of art.

My foray into HD, AV

Posted on by Michael

Yeah, I know. You’ve already got it. HD is like so last year. But I’m … slow. I can’t help it. I just couldn’t justify paying top dollar for an HD TV (when I don’t have TV service), and a new Blu-Ray player — and THEN have to go buy new movies to take advantage.

So I cheated. I bought a new monitor from Newegg. Yup, 28 inches of HD yummy-ness. Then I bought a Dell Zino HD. Blu Ray player and TV, all for the price of … well – you know. So I own one BR movie, watched it – loved it.

With the new Dell, I no longer was reliant on my Mac Mini…. what to do….
Media Center!
Yup, that’s right. I moved it downstairs. I ripped out my DVD player and CD changer and integrated everything through my VHS (for centralized video and audio) player. So my Wii, original Nintendo, VHS, Amp and Mini all live in very close proximity. I only have to change the channel up/down on the VHS player to select the Mini, Wii or everything else. Brilliant. Adam and Nathan were both major contributors to the design and implementation of my new home theatre system. I’m quite pleased.

Front Row takes a backseat on security

Posted on by Michael

Hi, my name is Michael – and I use a Mac.

I’m no Cupertino fanboy, but be assured that I was tempted by the ability of the MacBook to run all Mac/Linux/Windows software on one hardware platform. And I’ve been pleased overall.

I appear to have found a small bug with Front Row. Like many others, I have a password on my account and setup my computer to require it when I shut the lid. In public areas/meetings this makes it easy to simply shut my lid and step away for a few minutes.

One day I was experimenting with the Apple Remote Control. For those of you fortunate enough to play with one of these toys, you can easily bring up iMovie, iTunes, … all while sitting on your couch … or in your office chair. So during my “testing” I noticed that if I pushed the Menu button (which launches Front Row) and shut my lid, something interesting happened. No screen saver. No password. Just Front Row.

Not scared yet? Here’s the kicker. By default a MacBook (I have the nice black one) will receive input from any Remote. We tested it here multiple times and I could Front Row a computer from 10-30 feet, then the screen saver/password feature was overridden.

So here’s the scenario: Someone is using their laptop and about to walk away and shut their lid to “lock” their computer. You aim and click the menu key at their laptop just before they close it. They walk away – you open their lid, close Front Row and have unadulterated access to their machine. Scary.

Anyway, I did some searching in the blog-o-inter-web-o-sphere’s and didn’t find any details about this. Why would an app like Front Row negate the security on the OS? Ask Steve.

DMP + Emergency =

Posted on by Michael

Bill and I are working on a simple interface that Public Safety can use to display emergency information on the Digital Signage around campus.
The system uses an authenticated XML file to “start an emergency” and you select which group of Signs you want to be included. We expect to be able to make a secure web app that emergency personnel can use to start and stop an emergency very quickly – possibly even tie it into an emergency notification!

"new" hire …

Posted on by Michael

So we hired our Video Productions Engineer, but re-tuned the position into a Digital Media Producer. Anyway, we are super excited to have Deborah join the UCS team. She had done some worked with WOU before, but now is working for us full time. Her experience and skill will be a valuable asset to the department and the campus as a whole.

This week will be her trial-by-fire as Commencement (ack!) is Saturday. I am not usually involved in graduation … BUT since I just finished my Masters in MIS ( Management and Information Systems ) I plan to walk. I mean, you might as well – right?

Anyway, so I’m looking forward to graduation, and soon we’ll begin a few video tutorial series – starring me (not that I’m thrilled about that). I think, in the end, it will be a benefit to the campus community – particularly new users.