Yesterday, we saw how the internet is changing the educational landscape, along with the habits of both students and teachers, and Site Jabber shows us exactly how 2011 students are turning their bedroom into a classroom. But there was a time, not so far way, when there was no internet, and libraries were the premium source of knowledge and research. So, today we’ll fill the rest of this post with some infographics from Master Degree Online, Archives and Post Scholastica about this important institution, and the crisis surrounding it.
A new product from Cubic Corporation introduces the concept of “Data Containers”, popular in the datacenter industry, to the mobile training industry with their new mobile virtual small arms trainer. It’s 40-foot long trailer that folds down into a self-powered and environmentally controlled 5-lane EST 2000.
Manufactured by Cubic’s Simulation Systems Division in Orlando, Florida, EST 2000 is a laser-based system that uses digital video projectors, high-definition screens, game-based computer graphics and ballistically accurate simulated weapons to create highly realistic virtual combat scenarios. It replicates the performance of individual small arms and crew-served weapons. Its geo-specific virtual scenarios can be varied from urban to jungle and mountain terrains to Middle Eastern desert environments.
These units are already scheduled to hit the ground in Fort Knox, the US Army WAr College, and a National Guard Armory.
3dWorld has the scoop on an excellent short VFX film called ‘Bird’ made by a team of students from the Savannah University of Art and Design. A nice combination of live video and CG, all put to an eerie song by A Decent Animal.
Matching live-action characters with organic CG-effects, including head pieces attached to the human character, and the titular Bird, Balcombe explains his approach: “I have always been intrigued by films that combined live action footage of organic subject matter and then enhance it with computer generated media to create something totally new.”
If you’re in the VFX industry, you may want to consider a stint over in Australia thanks to a new government offset of 30% for post, digital, and VFX companies. Australia already plays host to Animal Logic, Rising Sun Pictures, and Fuel VFX, and it looks like they may start attracting many more.
‘We [in Australia] are well respected for our skills and craft but you have to compete financially as well,” said the policy and communications manager at Fuel VFX, Trish Graham, who cited the high Australian dollar and generous movie production incentives in Canada as the main constraints on the Australian industry.
We’ve mentioned Hatsune Miku before, the virtual pop star taking Japan by storm. Now she’s moved to the next level through corporate sponsorship and a television commercial for the new Toyota Corolla.
Watch Hatsune Miku as she steps out of her new 2011 Toyota Corolla and then steps onto the stage. With big dreams in a compact package, both the Corolla and Miku are driving straight to the top.
The commercial is well-done, although it’s just basic CG and comp work, none of the Pepper’s Ghost illusion (until the very end).
Our first choice of the day goes to Art Schools Online‘s huge historical review on the Education of some of the most influential – or just famous – American citizens. Then, we move on to a look at student loan debts, by Total Bankrupcy, Psychology School Online brings us the history of Online Education, while Campus Progress talks about For-Profit Education. Finally, Mindflash shows us how Degrees and Careers match up in America.
Here’s a conference I’ve never heard of before, the 2011 Gordon Research Conference on Visualization in Science & Education. Looks like it’s very heavy on use of visualization tools in classrooms and training environments, as well as on the use of video game and virtual world technology to further education. I recognize a few names on the agenda, but I’m really curious about some of the talks like Gigapixel-scale Video and “Creative Removal of Inessential Information”.
The 2011 Gordon Conference on Visualization in Science and Education will continue to challenge our vibrant and cohesive interdisciplinary community to explore how visualizations of data, concepts and phenomena (from simple to highly complex) can be best be used to increase understanding and facilitate learning at all levels. The immense computational power, large data sets, and online tools that are now available to all disciplines and even the general public are dramatically changing what can be visualized and even the very process of creation.
The Air Force has long been looking at Second Life for training and education, and a new article over on the Defense.Gov website chronicles some of the more successful efforts and what they hope to gain.
“What really drew us out to [the virtual world] was this wonderful opportunity to interact and connect with people on a global scale and with high levels of creativity,” Andrew Stricker of the Air Force’s Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base’s Gunter Annex in Montgomery, Ala., told American Forces Press Service.
“We thought Second Life was perfect for doing innovation work in the Department of Defense,” said Stricker, whose team is part of Air University’s innovations and integration division
In an interesting move, NVidia just bought a little-known company named Icera. Icera is one of those companies you never hear of, but owns some of the more popular chipsets for 2G, 3G, and 4G data communications. For a sizable layout of $367 Million in cash, NVidia now has their own communications chip company.
Founded in 2002 and based in Bristol, England, Icera produces multi-protocol, ultra-low power wireless baseband processors with RF components, capable of working on 2G, 3G and 4G networks that use different protocols, such as HSPA, HSPA+ and LTE. “Because the baseband is software-based, manufacturers can develop multiple products from a common platform, reduce development costs, accelerate time to market and secure a route to support future baseband standards,” Nvidia said.
The goal is to integrate this chipset into the Tegra platform, and make it an even more attractive offering to developers. A uniform platform with GPU, CPU, and now Wireless Communications.
FlowingData has a tip to an interesting visualization from David Wicks showing rainfall and water consumption across the US in a graph as shown above.
The placement of each line represents a rainfall measurement, and the length and end placement is based on urban consumption. Lines pulled farther from its source change to black. The data comes from two sources: USGS for water consumption and NOAA/NWS for rainfall data provided.
The result looks very similar to Line Integral Convolution, and is a surprisingly effective way to represent this information.
Yesterday, we saw how the internet is changing the educational landscape, along with the habits of both students and teachers, and Site Jabber shows us exactly how 2011 students are turning their bedroom into a classroom. But there was a time, not so far way, when there was no internet, and libraries were the premium source of knowledge and research. So, today we’ll fill the rest of this post with some infographics from Master Degree Online, Archives and Post Scholastica about this important institution, and the crisis surrounding it.
A new product from Cubic Corporation introduces the concept of “Data Containers”, popular in the datacenter industry, to the mobile training industry with their new mobile virtual small arms trainer. It’s 40-foot long trailer that folds down into a self-powered and environmentally controlled 5-lane EST 2000.
If you’re in the VFX industry, you may want to consider a stint over in Australia thanks to a new government offset of 30% for post, digital, and VFX companies. Australia already plays host to Animal Logic, Rising Sun Pictures, and Fuel VFX, and it looks like they may start attracting many more.
We’ve 
Our first choice of the day goes to 
In an interesting move, NVidia just bought a little-known company named Icera. Icera is one of those companies you never hear of, but owns some of the more popular chipsets for 2G, 3G, and 4G data communications. For a sizable layout of $367 Million in cash, NVidia now has their own communications chip company.
FlowingData has a tip to an interesting visualization from David Wicks showing rainfall and water consumption across the US in a graph as shown above.
VizWorld.com 
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