Second Life

Even if you haven't played it, chances are you've heard of the Sims, a computer game in which you control computer "people," and guide them through their virtual lives. You can make them get a job, get married, have kids...pretty much anything.

What is less commonly known, but just as widely played, is an internet interface similar in concept to the Sims: The Second Life. In this world, you control one avatar, which you can customize to look like yourself or like something abstract, and you live your second life there. It has its own form of currency, but everything else mirrors the real world. This game looks like the Sims, but behaves like the Neopets website because anyone can create an account, and a player can interact with anyone else from anywhere in the world.

Second Life was launched on June 23, 2003 by Linden Lab, a company based in San Francisco. Linden Lab also owns the internet grid on which Second Life is played, appropriately named Second Life Grid. There are two designed versions: the adult grid (for 18 and older), and the teen grid (for ages 13-17). Unfortunately, a major complaint of Second Life is that adults cannot interact with anyone on the teen grid, and so Linden Lab decided to discontinue the teen grid in or around December 2010.

A player can create an account for free, but for a premium membership (paid for in real American dollars), a player can give his avatar a monthly stipend of L$300. These players, called "Residents," can purchase land, build their homes, and basically live their lives in this world. The coolest part of Second Life is the built-in 3-D modeling tool, which allows residents to create virtual objects for themselves. Linden Lab was honored honored at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for this development, which was described as "user generated content on an online site."

Because the limitations to what can be done in this world are virtually limitless, Second Life almost effortlessly appeals to a large percentage of the younger population, and some in the older generations. That being said, there are many students who play this game, but replace virtual interaction with real, social interaction.

Inherently, there is a danger to living in a virtual world, especially because, like in the real world, there will be people who don't get along and start fights. Because it's a computer world, privacy and internet rights are prime targets for vengeful players, and in the light of increased identity thefts over the internet, it is a definite risk to be overly involved with this site.

Despite the danger, over 21.3 million accounts had been created on Second Life as of November 2010, and at any given moment, an average of 38,000 people are logged in. As a result, major societal entities such as universities, science research labs, religious groups, and even the embassies of countries have created accounts in Second Life.

The people of Linden Lab hope that this giant virtual world will help promote tolerance and understanding in the real one. So long as real life is not forsaken, it's alright to have a second, virtual life--within reason, of course.

Mechanical Man’s Mission to the Moon

$150 billion can buy a lot of food, houses, cars, clothes--anything--or it could buy one trip to the moon with a crew of astronauts. Last September, Congress deemed that risk too high, and decided to cancel the program. But hope still remains in the form of a metal man.

An artist's rendition of Robonaut on the moon.

For approximately $200 million, plus $250 million for a rocket, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) engineers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston can build a humanoid robot which runs on batteries and send it to the moon to take measurements and conduct experiments. This robot would never have to sleep, eat, or stop working-it could be the most efficient researcher of all time. Its name would be its mission: Project M.

Perhaps the most ambitious part of this project is that NASA believes it can accomplish this goal in 1,000 days, or a little under 3 years. Project M’s manager, R. Matthew Ondler, explained that this intense deadline “creates this sense of urgency. NASA is at its best when it has a short time to figure out things. You give us six or seven years to think about something, and we’re not so good.“ That time allows for too many external variables to occur and slow the process even further, costing more money and detracting from other possible research paths.

Of course, another advantage to having such a major project completed in a relatively short amount of time is the amount of impact it can have, and the effect of that impact. For example the 1969 Moon Walk inspired a large amount of young students to grow up and study astrophysics and engineering. In recent years, science and math studies have waned in popularity, and NASA hopes that with the success of this project will come a new wave of excited, young minds.

The crew of Apollo 11, the first men on the moon.

Stephen J. Altemus, the chief engineer at Johnson Space Center, stressed that NASA is “doing impossible things with really very little, if any, money whatsoever,” and that the restrictions of Congress could put a hold on their plans. This raises some interesting questions about what happens to NASA if there is not enough money in the Federal Budget to sustain it. It seems that Houston would definitely have a problem then.

This is where the beauty of Project M fully lies. For a few years, NASA has been working on Project Constellation, which would work to send astronauts to the moon. The project has cost $10 billion so far, and, following the September vote, is expected to be canceled by Congress in the 2011 Budget Report, especially as interest in the moon is beginning to lessen. “We’ve been there before,” President Obama declared in April. The general sentiment in Washington is that right now, there is no money to spend on a rock, however large and scientifically interesting it may be. But Project M is, by comparison, very cheap, and would be just as effective as if NASA had sent humans up to the moon. It seems like a win-win situation.

For now, NASA is kicking Project M into top gear. “I always felt like our organization was a Ferrari, and we were never allowed to drive with our foot on the gas,” Mr. Altemus said. “We were kind of at idle speed all the time.” At that speed, NASA will never break out of Earth’s atmosphere, but Project M is going to be the extra fuel they need to go that last mile.

Sources: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/science/space/02robot.html?pagewanted=1&ref=technology

The Nissan Leaf

Nissan’s newest model car is on the market in December, an invention which Time Magazine named one of the top 50 inventions of 2009. This car, while not the first electric vehicle, has garnered numerous awards from The Green Car Journal and won the coveted Popular Mechanics 2010 Breakthrough Award. This new environmental do-good device is none other than the Nissan LEAF, whose name is an acronym for Leading, Environmentally friendly, Affordable, Family car.

The 2011 Nissan Leaf, the newest only-electric vehicle.

The Leaf is estimated to have the range of up to 100 miles on one battery charge, although numbers as high as 138 miles and as low as 64 miles have been reported. It is powered by an electric motor located between the front wheels, which in turn is powered by a 24 kilowatt-hours (86 MJ) lithium ion battery pack rated to deliver power up to 90 kW (120 hp). The battery's chemical formula is LiMn(2)O(4), and Nissan guarantees the battery to last for 8 years or 100,000 miles. The company attributes this variation to a number of factors, such as driving speed, weather and road conditions, and total load.

In terms of recharging time, customers can opt for a low volt (120V) charge, which takes about 8 hours, or a high volt (480V) charge, which charges the battery up to 80% in 30 minutes. Although the high volt option is quicker, it is much more expensive to install the necessary equipment. In an effort to make the electric car more popular in the United States, Nissan has given the first 5,700 buyers a free recharging station upgrade for their homes.

The stylish interior of the American version of the Nissan Leaf

For everyone else, Nissan estimates that a typical installation cost will be about $2,200, but the buyer would be eligible for a 50% Federal tax cut for sustainability. The car itself will cost about $32,780, with $595 acquisition fee and a $395 disposition fee as the initial down-payment. Although the Leaf may be slightly more expensive than other 5-door hatchback cars on the market, the US Government has offered substantial tax incentives and subsidies as part of a more economically focused agenda.

However, not everyone has fallen for the idea of the Nissan Leaf. Since Nissan began announcing the benefits of the Leaf, a former marketing manager of Tesla Motors criticized the cooling system designed for the lithium-ion battery, and concluded that it would affect the long-term performance of the battery itself. Also, the large range of variation in the mileage of one charge has been the cause for concern from critics and consumers alike.

As gasoline prices rise, an all-electric car becomes a more attractive option. Nissan is banking that their US market will see the advantages of producing no local air pollution, reducing the need to import oil, and enhancing energy security. Don’t worry--American car makers aren’t far behind in the race to control the electric vehicle market. In 2012, the Chevrolet Volt will be introduced to the American consumers. For now the Nissan Leaf, with its “snappy acceleration, spacious, quiet cabin, and intelligent navigation system,” is the greenest investment in cars since the Tesla Roadster. 

Spiders on the Web

Click.

In that fraction of a second after you clicked the button saying “Search,” a spider springs into action, crawling as fast as physically possible to get your information to you in less than a second.  That spider is using all eight of its legs at hyper-speed, but you never see it. What exactly are these web crawlers?

Simply put, they are computer programs that are able to process information methodically and rapidly, adding the relevant URLs to a list of sources, called the crawl frontier. Because the task is done quickly each time, it’s easy to assume that this task is easy. However, there are three characteristics of the web that make it great for users, but horrible for computer scientists who are designing these web crawlers.

One is that there the Internet is constantly changing its content, which means that by the time the crawler has downloaded the frontier, there’s a high probability that those pages have been modified or deleted since the crawler analyzed it. Another is that there are constantly new pages being generated, some in other languages, so the web crawler has to sift through those as well. The third reason is that the Internet’s sheer volume of information, and the crawler has to tailor its findings to suit your search.

Despite the odds against it, the spider is not so easily defeated. It has four weapons to aid it in the battle against irrelevancy: selection policy, re-visit policy, politeness policy, and parallel computing policy.


In selection policy, the bot employs one of three methods to find the “seeds,” or the URLs to be displayed on the frontier, and then analyzes each site individually for relevance. An important algorithm named OPIC (On-line Page Importance Computation) shows promise to make current search engines more effective, but it has not been tested yet on the web. Most of the time, using a previous crawl path to direct a current demand is most effective, which is why Google searches of the same thing look the same. 

                           How the Web Crawler sorts and stores data
In the re-visit policy, the computer has to first have analyzed the original state of the website for relevancy. By the time another search of the same nature is made, if that site has changed in any way, the website is given a value of 1 in binary code, and it moves up in the selection process. If it has not changed recently, the website is given a value of 0. This keeps the most recently updated information in the front of the frontier, which explains how Wikipedia is usually one of the top results.

The politeness policy actually hinders the ability of a crawler to download information in the short term because it prevents multiple crawlers from retrieving the URL at the same time from one server. The server could crash if it has too many demands at once, so computer scientists have put what is called a “crawl delay” on the time it takes the frontier to develop. These delays range in time from 1 second to 3 minutes, although the latter is highly impractical.

Finally, there is the parallel computing policy, which takes a large problem and breaks it down into smaller bits, which are all solved at the same time. The ultimate problem of this policy is it is possible to have multiple downloads of the same page, so to prevent this the crawler will assign sub-URLs on the frontier space.

There is much more to learn and develop about web crawlers, and it remains an important topic in the field of computer science. If you want more information, feel free to Google it, or use this site or view the page as a Googlebot would:

Happy crawling!

Google Scholar

            When one hears or reads the term “Google” in everyday settings, the connotation that pops into his or her head is one of an efficient and well-known search engine that brings together all the websites on the internet for easy access and maneuverability by a normal person searching for information. However, to a member of academia, such as a student or faculty of Johns Hopkins University, such a range of information is not always beneficial for one’s purposes. When resources can vary from articles published in scientific journals to biased blogs written for pure recreation, students may not be able to distinguish between which sources to trust and which to take with a grain of salt.

            Thankfully, Google has come out with a narrower search engine titled “Google Scholar,” accessible at http://scholar.google.com, which allows users to search for scholarly literature over a vast amount of disciplines. Whenever you are researching a scholarly matter, make use of Google Scholar in order to access articles, theses, abstracts, court opinions, and more written by top professionals.

            However, to experience the full advantages of Google Scholar, you must make sure your Google account is linked to the Johns Hopkins library, consequently giving you complete access to the countless resources, scientific journals, and libraries to which Johns Hopkins University’s library has subscribed for the academic benefit of the students. In order to establish the link between your Google account and JHU’s library resources, go to Google Scholar and click on “Scholar Preferences” in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. Scroll approximately halfway down the next screen until you see the section titled “Library Links.” Type “Hopkins” into the search box directly to the right of the title “Library Links” and click “Find Library.” Google will then list directly beneath the search box the numerous libraries and resources to which Johns Hopkins University students, faculty, and staff have access. You may check on all the library access links that are not grayed out. After you finish choosing the Hopkins libraries you want access to, save your preferences at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. As a result, the next time you use Google Search, you will have access to an exceptionally vast collection of scholarly articles and literature for your research needs. (If Google Scholar will not allow you to choose the Hopkins libraries, you should either link to the libraries while on the Hopkins wireless or wired network, attempt to retry after logging into your JH Portal, or ask a librarian if you are unable to figure it out as they would be glad to help.)

Linking to JHU's Resources on Google Scholar

           Most significantly, connecting your Google account to the Johns Hopkins’ libraries permits you to take advantage of a service named “Find It @ Johns Hopkins Libraries.” Specifically, when using Google Scholar while linked to the Johns  Hopkins libraries, you may have noticed the link “FIND IT @ JHU FullText” show up to the right of multiple search results. Clicking on a “FIND IT” link will take you to the JHU library’s Find It page, where you can find links to electronic databases that contain the full text of the article you searched for through Google Scholar. Consequently, Find It allows you to view full texts of an array of scholarly literature and science journals for one’s research and homework purposes without the hassle of paying for access. Occasionally, you may also see a link directly above the Find It link that refers to a PDF at a particular website. This feature in Google Scholar is available for a small quantity of search results and allows you to view a PDF version of the full article.

Click on the "FIND IT" link if you would like to access the full text of an article on Google Scholar

            In general, Google Scholar is a considerably helpful resource for academic and research-related online searches and should be used to its full potential. With features ranging from allowing you complete access to the range of scholarly literature subscribed to by the Johns Hopkins University Library, importing citations without difficulty to your RefWorks account, offering an advanced search option for narrower and more effective searches, and sorting the scholarly literature by significance, relevance, date, and credibility of the author(s) and publisher, Google Scholar is a hidden jewel for the college student and all others who are associated with academia.

            For more information regarding Google Scholar, see the Google Scholar Help Page.

What is Google Health?

There is not one student here at Johns Hopkins who has never heard of Google. Anytime you need a question answered, the phrase “I’ll Google it” flies from your mouth, and your fingers type the familiar word. What most people don’t know is that Google now has the capability to keep track of your health statistics through its new feature, Google Health.

Since its launch in May 2008, Google Health has helped people across the country proactively monitor their lab results, medication intake, sleep patterns, and even diet progress. In September 2010 it was renovated and made more secure by adding more encryption and requiring a second login upon arrival at the Google Health page.  

Only the patient to whom the information refers has the ability to “share” the information with the people he chooses, whether it be his spouse, child, parent, or doctor. Multiple Health accounts can be linked together, so a mother can monitor her family’s health and doctor’s appointments, or friends can collaborate on their common goals, such as quitting smoking or losing weight. Currently, there are 7.3 million people who use online health records, and an estimated 72.5 million are interested in the idea. Google Health is committed to meeting this high demand.

Google Health was created by employees at Google working on 20% Projects, a policy which allows employees to work on a project of their choosing for 20% of their total work time a week. Other projects that have originated from 20% Projects include GMail and Streetview, two very popular items from Google. Health has even received some funding from the Federal Stimulus Package under the HITech and Health IT grants so the elderly can keep their information in one place for free.

Unfortunately, Google Health is actually losing money for Google because it is not widely used, and also doesn't allow advertisements. Despite this, Marc Donner, the Engineering Director for Google Health, stresses that the goal of Google Health is to make medical information more easily accessible, and not to make money for the company.

Upon entering the Google Health website for the first time, the patient is asked to fill out basic information about him\herself, including weight, height, age, race, blood type, allergies, and medications. This is the beginning of the Personal Health Record, or PHR, that can be shared among hospitals, doctors offices, and other people. Based on what the patient enters, the website will record things like Body Mass Index (BMI), average sleep patterns, and illnesses.

On the right hand side, links to news articles and published research papers related to the subject will appear. For example, if you enter in that you only got 3 hours of sleep last night, scientific studies on sleep deprivation will appear on the side.

The obvious allure of Google Health is that you can keep track of your own medical history from the comfort of your dorm room, and you can see areas where your health could be improved (i.e.: getting more sleep per night, or exercising more). Although there are only a few medical offices actively using Health right now, those that do praise it because it engages the patient more, reduces the confusion surrounding insurance, and allows the doctors to learn exactly which medications the patient needs if he ever has a medical emergency. Google Health is not to be used as a diagnostic tool, but the presence of symptoms recorded on Google Health could point doctors in the right direction in the process of diagnosing a disease.

Google Health is a useful tool for the citizens of an increasingly health-conscience nation, but there are definitely risks to keeping all this sensitive information online. In the wake of identity thefts online, Google has done everything possible to keep health information as private as possible, and is confident that this tool will become an integral part of any medical appointment.

The patients must also take on responsibility and remember to exit their accounts at the end of their sessions. By taking precautionary measures and enforcing their practice, a patient can easily transport data and take on a more active role in his\her own health.

Marc Donner emphasizes that, as of now, Google Health is specifically tailored for the United States medical system, but Google employees are working on expanding it to other nations to allow for international PHRs. For more information on Google Health, visit the home page at:

http://www.google.com/intl/en-US/health/about/index.html

Printing at JHU

If you’re a new student here on campus, chances are high that you’ve needed to print a few things out already, especially if you enrolled in an Expository Writing class this semester. If you or your roommate has a printer in the room, then you can rest assured knowing that you’ll always have a physical representation of your homework, right? Wrong. The inconvenient truth about technology is that it sometimes, for whatever reason, fails. Not all of these problems are permanent, but in a tense situation with time running out, it’s comforting to have a back-up plan.

For all the students who have forgotten or will ever forget to buy computer paper or printer ink over the weekend, Johns Hopkins created not one but several safety nets to assist you. The most easily found printing center is on M Level in the Milton S. Eisenhower Library, about 50 feet away from the Guard’s Desk. Before you print for the first time, you should be sure that you have either J Cash on your J Card or on a printing card, which you can purchase at the Circulation desk for cash or buy from the black box in the Printing Room with a credit card. If you only want to print black and white copies, you can use the main printing room. For color copies there is a room on A Level that you can use instead.

Prior to printing in the Printing Room, you need to tell the printer what it is you want it to print out. Immediately to the left of the red double doors outside the room are three computers that are for one purpose only: to handle all the printing needs of JHU students. These computers have most of the Microsoft products installed on them, and connections to the Internet through the Mozilla Fire Fox  browsers.

After locating your document on the computer, hit the print button. You’ll go through the normal menu items, and after you hit “OK,” you’ll be asked to name your printing job. It’s a good idea to use your last name because you’ll recognize it on a list, and it can be modified with numbers in the case of numerous print jobs.

After you’ve gone through these steps, you can go into the Printing Room and print your documents. Go up to a printer, swipe your J Card or the Printing Card, and the screen will change to a list of all the unfinished print jobs. Look for your print job’s name, check the box next to the job name, and hit the print button. Your account will be charged $0.07 per page; however, the MSE Printing Center prints double sided, so you end up using half the paper that you would have used otherwise.

The Library isn’t the only place on campus you can print either. AMR I, Wolman, and Charles Commons all have their own computer labs, called Residential Computing Clusters (RCC). Each contains nine pcs, two Macs, and two Laser printers, one of which is color. The Charles Commons RCC is equipped with six computers and one printer. The AMR I RCC is open to AMR I and II residents, while the Wolman RCC is open to Wolman and McCoy residents and the Charles Commons RCC to Commons residents.  There are also various computer kiosks around campus that are equipped to handle a quick-print task every so often. These printers require a small fee of $0.06 per page.

Of course, if you for some reason can’t physically get to the library or another printing center, you can always use wireless printing and print it out later. To do this, log on to the “hopkins” wireless network and go through the normal printing option windows. You should still see the “Enter print name” window by which you can identify your print job in the library. Whenever you’re ready to print, Hopkins is ready to handle it. 

http://www.library.jhu.edu/services/computing/laptopprinting.html

ISIS

If you are a student, faculty, or staff at Johns Hopkins University, you have definitely had some experience with ISIS, the Integrated Student Information System. ISIS is a university-wide student information system which is designed for making the technical aspects of being a student simpler for you.

Most notably, ISIS is the online system through which you can register for classes every semester. One may access this feature of ISIS through logging in to http://isis.jhu.edu or accessing the ISIS system through your JH Portal and scrolling over the “Registration” tab in the top left-hand corner. The Registration tab allows you access to all the information you would have to request from a registrar’s office at most other universities. From the “Registration” tab, you have access to your program of study information, the registration system, your class schedule, and your grades. From these sections of ISIS, you can determine your adviser's name, register for classes, swiftly get the last seat for an interesting class after being on the wait list, upload your class schedule to your computer’s calendar, or even view your transcript (including your uncovered freshman grades).

Additionally, the “Financial Aid” tab, located to the right of the “Registration” tab, you can access your relative financial aid information, such as the required forms to complete in order to keep your financial aid and the summary of your scholarship, work/study, and other aid awards. Through the “Financial Aid” section, you can determine the amount of aid you are receiving for the current year, accept or decline aid, and manage all of your financial aid needs.

To the right of the “Financial Aid” tab, you can find the “Billing” tab. The “Billing” section is where you can find your current balance and its due date. Most importantly, the “Billing” section allows you to pay your tuition dues by eCheck, paper check, and view your transactions. Furthermore, if you are like many students, taking advantage of the “Authorized Users” section, accessed by “Billing”-->”Authorized Users”, is an extremely efficient way of allowing your parents to access and pay the balance. Through a simple, straightforward process, you can click “add authorized user” and, within 1-2 minutes, have established an account for your parents or guardians to access the parts of ISIS that you specify, which includes billing, financial, your class schedule, and your grades (but only if you choose to allow them to do so).

Lastly, the “Personal Info” tab is the last of the four tabs and permits you to enter and update your personal information, your emergency contact information, your family information, and your authorized users. Although entering all of this information seems like a hassle, you can not register for classes until all of your required information is established; I wouldn’t procrastinate registering for classes because those seats fill fast!

As more of a postscript, there a few additional features of ISIS that I would like to point out. Your Hopkins ID, which is different from your JHED ID and JCard, is a 6 character alphanumeric ID necessary for confirming your individual identity as a Johns Hopkins community member and is always located at the top of the ISIS screen, right above the “Billing” tab, as shown in the screenshot below. Additionally, there may be an “ALERTS” link on the top right-hand corner, also shown in the screenshot below, that only appears when there is important information for you to know. Finally, the first screen that comes up when you access ISIS is the announcements section. Important information from each section of ISIS (Registration, Financial Aid, and Billing) appears here, so don’t ignore it in order to stay up to date with all your information-related needs.

ISIS Home Page - Hopkins ID and ALERTS are highlighted by a red outline

If you need any help with ISIS, check out the JHU Systems Help web page, accessible at http://help.sset.jhu.edu/dashboard.action, which links to ISIS help pages specific for students, faculty, or advisers.

JShare

A little-known, underused service provided by Johns Hopkins to faculty, staff, and students is JShare, a file storage system out there in the cloud. Students are each allotted 5GB of space to upload files, which can be accessed from any location with an internet connection, and can also be shared with anyone who has an e-mail address.  You are given control over who has access to folders and the contents of those folders, and can also track who last modified a file as well as tag files, among other features.

You can access your own JShare link directly, or through the Portal by going to "myApps" -> "JShare" from the left sidebar (shown below).

As long as you stay within the JShare policies, this could be used for a variety of things, from hosting a website to backing up files to storing and sharing files that are being worked on from multiple locations.  Overall, JShare is fairly user-friendly and self-explanatory, though there's not too much to it besides storing files.  Nonetheless, this is a LOT of space for the average Hopkins user, and it's a great, free resource that you should be sure to take advantage of!

For more information, see the student JShare resource.

Advertising @ JHU

The school year’s here and your student group has a bunch of great things planned for the year – performances, parties, trips, recruitment.  But how do you get the message out to the student body?  Well Hopkins has a variety of places and platforms for your advertising (assuming you’re part of a registered student group), and it’s just a matter of knowing what to have, who to talk to, and where to go.  Here’s a quick run-down on some great ways to advertise on the Homewood campus:

Posters\Flyers – This is the simple, old-fashioned college advertising method.  But let me tell you, it works!  If you want to post in the dorms, make a poster (maximum 8”x11”) and drop by the Office of Residential Life in AMR II to get the stamp of approval.  Then make copies of the stamped poster and make sure you follow the rules for posting!  If you want to post anywhere else (academic buildings, breezeways, etc.), you can pretty much post whatever and however you want.

Leaflets – Another standard college advertising strategy is handing out leaflets (quarter-page flyers) in high-volume traffic areas.  This strategy is cheap and efficient.  Generally, the best place to do this is the breezeway between Krieger Hall and Ames Hall.  Again, just get the leaflet approved by the Office of Residential Life in AMR II.  In addition, you can stuff these in dorm residents’ mailboxes or place them in the four-sided plastic napkin holders (“Table Talkers”) in campus dining areas.  Student groups must submit a copy of their proposed table talker to Kelly Davies in the Housing & Dining Office (Wolman 101), and these can’t be posted more than one week in advance of an event.

Tabling – Reserve a table in trafficked areas to have personal interactions with students.  Usually this goes in conjunction with handing out leaflets, giving away free stuff, or having some kind of poster or interactive thing.  To reserve a table outside residence halls, contact the Office of Residential Life (AMRII) no more than 2 weeks in advance, or contact Syreeta Hubbard (bbl@jhu.edu, 410-516-8209, Levering 102) for a breezeway table.

Banners - Banners are wonderful because they’re big and in high-traffic areas.  Contact the appropriate person for where you want it: 
· Mattin Center - Eric Beatty, Mattin Center 210, 516-0774, ebeatty@jhu.edu
· Breezeway - Syreeta Hubbard, Levering Hall 100, 516-8209, bbl@jhu.edu
· Residence halls - Hannah Von Krause, AMR II, 516-8283
· MSE Library - Betty Cook, 410-516-7676

Chalking – Chalking can be a fun and interesting way of advertising.  The obvious drawback is that inclement weather could quickly wipe away your hard work.  To reserve chalking space in the courtyard areas of AMR I & II, contact the Hannah Von Krause (AMR II) at 410-516-8283.  For all other areas, contact Syretta Hubbard (Levering 102) at 410-516-8209.

Mural Boards – These boards are located next to Whitehead Hall and also in the tunnel under Gilman Hall.  These locations get pretty heavy traffic, and the boards can really catch peoples’ eyes.  Latex paint and brushes and trays are provided, but bring a drop cloth and clean everything when you’re done.  Come up with a concept and contact Jillian Rickerd at Office of Student Activities (Mattin Center Suite 131, Jrickerd@jhu.edu, 410-516-4873) to reserve a board.  Your mural will be an attention-grabbing billboard for a minimum of 2 weeks!

Flash Ads – You may have noticed widescreen plasma tvs displaying ads in such places as the library and the Krieger computer lab.  These ads must be submitted at least two weeks before you want the ad displayed, and they can be displayed for up to one week at a time.  Flash ads can be submitted as PowerPoint, Flash (.swf), JPEG, BMP, or GIF files.

Today’s Announcements – These announcements are sent out to every student’s e-mail inbox every day of the school year.  Many students at least scan through these e-mails, and they are relatively easy to submit.  These are great for day-of announcements of events.  Just submit the post by 12 noon the business day prior to posting.

Hopkins Groups – Hopkins Groups is a new, up and coming online community for Hopkins students and student groups (see our previous blog post on this).  The main page prominently features a virtual “Public Flyerboard,” which functions like a cross between a real public flyerboard and FaceBook events.  Register your group, set up the profile, and start posting events.  There may not be many people using it yet, but if you start using it and advertising now, it’ll probably catch on soon enough.  I’ll also mention here that there is a separate Hopkins Events page where student groups can post events.  This doesn’t seem to be linked to the new Hopkins Groups page, but while it exists, it might be worth posting here as well. (events.jhu.edu)

FaceBook – You can never go wrong with a FaceBook event.  Make a FaceBook group for your student group, set up events, and invite everyone you know.  This is great for getting some idea of a head count (though not always accurate) and for sending out messages to everyone invited or RSVP’d.

For more information on advertising and a start-to-finish guide to running events at Hopkins, see the “JHU Event Planning and Promotion Handbook.”  Remember – the key to getting your group name and events out there is exposure.  Use as many mediums in as many places as possible.  So now that you know what to do, start working on yours ads and submit them!

Hopkins Technology Store

If you're coming back to campus this Fall, you'll notice something a little different about the Krieger Lab in the first floor of Krieger Hall. Now the front of the lab hosts the brand new Hopkins Technology Store. The Hopkins Technology Store serves as an on-campus Apple retailer, complete with Apple-certified student staff. In addition to Apple products, the store also carries a line of Dell computers and computer accessories.

The computers on sale at the Hopkins Technology Store are part of the Mobile Computing Program (MCP), meaning they're available to Hopkins students, faculty, and staff at discounted rates. I know a lot of freshmen buy computers through the MCP, but it's not a bad option for returning or graduate students either. One of the great things about the MCP is that computers bought through it come with a three-year warranty and you can have them serviced on campus as well as get a loaner laptop to use while yours is being fixed. I used this when I had a laptop I bought through MCP, and it was a huge help.

You can check out all the products Hopkins Technology Store offers on its website and also become a fan on Facebook to keep up-to-date about the latest products and deals.

Restart Launched!

Returning students of Johns Hopkins:

You’ve been here for 1, 2, 3, even 4 years now.  You know the ropes – building and classroom locations, the best places to eat and have fun, how to study effectively.  So when you have technology issues on campus, you know where and how to take care of them…right?...

… Well just in case you need a little refresher, Restart (restart.jhu.edu) has all of your Hopkins technology resources compiled into one place.  From where to purchase computers and accessories to troubleshooting your internet connection, Restart has the information you need and tells you where to go.  For those of you familiar with JumpStart, which is geared towards freshmen, Restart serves a similar purpose but is more appropriate to the needs of upperclassmen.

So check it out, and even a veteran like you might be surprised to learn something new about technology at Hopkins!

Working at STS

With the school year starting (too) soon, many students think about looking for part-time employment during the school year. Working as a student not only provides some money for school (and fun), but also valuable experience beyond the scope of your education.

One of the things we're really proud of at STS is that the work we do is done almost totally by students. Every year, especially in the Fall, we hire new students to come work with us. Generally, we don't require any specific skill set, just that you be flexible and willing to learn. One of the great things about working at STS is that you get paid to learn new skills (and then use them and teach them to others). We hire people to fill a wide variety of positions: graphic designers, writers, web application developers, web designers, 3D modelers, etc. You can find a full listing of our positions on our website. We'll also be at the job fair in a couple weeks.

To give you a taste of what it's like working at STS, I'll share a little bit about my experience. I went to the job fair as a Freshman, looking for a job that would help me make a little money to help me pay for school. I signed up to interview with STS as a writer/editor. I came in for an interview and was offered the position. My managers decided, though, that they needed me to do more layout and graphic design than writing. So, I spent my first semester or so learning Adobe Indesign and Photoshop. During my first couple years working at STS the project I spent the most time on was the Jumpstart guide (back then it was a pdf, not a website). Even though I had never been interested in design before, I learned quite a bit.

The summer after my Junior year (which included studying abroad for a semester) I decided to stay in Baltimore for the summer and work at STS full-time. By that time, the Virtual JHU project was in full-swing and so I started to learn how to use Google Sketchup so I could help out with the 3D modeling. I spent that summer learning more than I ever wanted to about some of the buildings on campus, but I had also learned a new skill.

I kept modeling and helping with other projects through my Senior year. After I graduated (class of 2009) I decided to keep working at STS at least through the summer (we regularly retain students for up to six months after graduation). That led to the offer of a full-time position, which I decided to accept. Not only did I do more modeling, but I started managing our modeling and design teams, giving me even more valuable experience.

It's hard to believe that putting my name on a piece of paper almost five years ago would open up so many doors for me. As it is, I'm going to be leaving STS to pursue further studies in China. I'm very grateful, though, for all the experience I've gained working here, and I'd definitely encourage you to apply for a position.

As if you needed any more reason to work at STS, check out this video our students made a few years ago:

Building Virtual JHU

So, how do we make all those buildings you see in Virtual JHU? Here's a quick run-down:

The primary 3D modeling program we use is Google Sketchup. Sketchup is convenient for a couple reasons. For one thing, there's a basic version that you can download for free. (Right now we're using the Pro version, which you have to pay for.) Unlike other 3D modeling programs, learning Sketchup is pretty easy, and it is remarkably powerful given how easy it is to use. The other thing that's nice about Sketchup is that it integrates very well with Google Earth, which is what we're using to present Virtual JHU. If you're interested in 3D modeling at all, I highly recommend getting started with Sketchup. Google has also come out with a tool called Building Maker, which is the quickest way to make buildings for Google Earth.

The first step for modeling any building for Virtual JHU is getting the floor plans. We are deeply indebted to the Office of Facilities Management for providing floor plans to us for Virtual JHU. Once we have the CAD drawings for each floor, we import them into separate Sketchup files. (The ability to import .dwg files is only offered in Sketchup Pro now.) We then pull up the walls outlined in the 2D floor plans to create a basic model of the floor, finishing by adding a floor slab underneath.

Once we have made models for each individual floor we stack them on top of each other in a single Sketchup file. Then we make a roof for the model based on photographs, first-hand observations, and (sometimes) measurements. At that point we've built a model that looks roughly like the real building (except very plain).

The next step is to begin photo-texturing the model. When we started modeling the buildings currently in Virtual JHU we took photos of each individual feature of the building (windows, doors, brick, etc.), used Photoshop to crop them, and then positioned them on the model in Sketchup, tiling materials like brick and marble siding as necessary.

This process resulted in models that were high in detail, but also in file size and are a drag on users' graphics cards. That's one of the reasons we have to continue to work on increasing the performance of Virtual JHU.

To help with performance, one of our programmers wrote a script that removed interior geometry from the Sketchup models, enabling us to present exterior-only versions for all the buildings (until you "open up" a building to see its individual floors). The script caused some issues with some of the models, damaging their materials. (You can notice some pretty significant issues with some of the buildings.)

To solve this problem, now once we have a building stacked we create a shell made of simple planes, on which to apply the textures. This reduces the geometry in the exterior-only versions of the models without having to use the "gutting" script. We have also been trying to use lower-resolution imagery that isn't quite as detailed.

So there you go, that's how we make our models in a nutshell. I'll leave other parts of Virtual JHU to another post. If you have any comments or suggestions, we'd love to hear them.

New Video Content Added to Virtual JHU

We've just added some new video content to Virtual JHU for some of the dorm buildings. The videos come from the Hopkins CRIBS series produced by Hopkins Interactive. In the series, current Hopkins students show you around their dorm rooms, giving you a little glimpse of life at Hopkins. Hopkins Interactive produces a number of videos like this and also has students who write blogs. Apart from actually coming to the campus itself and living there for a few days, I think that the best way to find out what it's like at Hopkins is by visiting their website.

Over the next couple of weeks keep an eye out for more videos like these popping up. We'd also love to hear your feedback about what you'd like to see in Virtual JHU.

HopkinsGroups on Collegiate Link

This year the Office of Student Life is debuting a new way for student groups to be active online with a Collegiate Link site replacing the old jhu.mystudentgroups.com site. The new site features a virtual flyerboard and a crisp design that is definitely superior to the old site. If you are a leader of a current JHU student organization you should definitely register on the new site if you haven't already.

For anyone looking to join a student group, HopkinsGroups is the first place you should look. You can search for a specific organization, browse over a dozen categories, or (if you have a lot of time) look at every student organization at JHU. Each group can post a description of their activities as well as contact information so you can get involved right away.

If you already belong to a student group you can "join" that group on Collegiate Link and then add the My Involvement Facebook App to your profile so you can tell your friends about the activities you're passionate about. You can also create a transcript of your extracurricular activities to share with potential employers.

Facebook Settings 101: Application Settings

So this is the third and final post about Facebook settings, and this one deals with application settings. As I mentioned before, it's almost impossible to avoid applications on Facebook, and even if you could, you probably wouldn't want to: there's guaranteed to be at least one app out there that you'd want to add to your profile.

The Application Settings page itself is pretty straightforward. One thing to notice is that there are some applications that you can't remove (like Events, Links, and Photos) and some (many) that you can. Clicking on "Edit Settings" opens a window where you can set preferences for how you interact with each application. One of the most important settings is whether or not you want a box for that application to appear in your profile and who you want to be able to see that box. Clicking on the X next to an application will remove it from your profile.

If you're like me, you don't actually look at your Facebook profile very often. Moreover, when you look at the Application Settings page it only shows Recently Used applications by default. If you want to do a little bit of tidying up (which is a good idea), select authorized from the drop down menu next to "Show". This will show all the applications you have authorized to be part of your profile. Chances are you have at least a few applications in that last you haven't updated in a long time or are out of date. I was really surprised how many applications I had authorized.

When you use social networking sites like Facebook, remember that it's ultimately your responsibility to protect your personal information. If you don't actively use settings to keep yourself safe, then you're asking for trouble. With a site like Facebook, it's also important to make sure you understand the latest changes to privacy policies and the various settings. If you have any questions about using Facebook or other social networking sites, let us know.

Good News for iPhone 'Jailbreakers'

Have you ever found it annoying that you can only download apps for your iPhone from Apple's app store?

A number of people have complained about Apple's restrictive policy when it comes to applications. Even though there are thousands of apps available in Apple's store, all of those have met Apple's acceptance criteria. (Meanwhile Google has trumpeted its Android operating system as a more open alternative.)

Yesterday, however, the U.S. Copyright Office added new exceptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that protect iPhone owners who "hack" their phones in order to install non-Apple approved acts. Previously, Apple could have requested a $2500 fine be levied against iPhone jailbreakers. (Has anyone heard of them doing this?)

While this will be an encouragement to at least the law-conscious jailbreakers out there, be careful. Apple can still void your warranty if you install non-Apple approved apps.

Also on Monday, the Copyright Office allowed an exemption to the DMCA allowing users to circumnavigate DVD copyright controls in order to burn parts of movies to use in their own artistic creations (like video montages). Of course, this doesn't mean it's legal to burn and distribute entire movies. This exception only applies to "fair use" of copyrighted materials. (Read Wikipedia's article about the legal meaning of fair use.)

Read CNN's report on the Copyright Office's decision for more information.

Does this ruling and the possibility of more openness when it comes to iPhone apps make buying an iPhone more appealing to you? Or do you agree with Apple about their store being the sole distribution point for iPhone apps?

Facebook Settings 101: Privacy Settings

This is the second of three posts about the basics of Facebook settings. If you didn't read it, you might want to go back and look at the first post, which talks about Facebook's Account Settings.

Before you start looking at your privacy settings on Facebook, it's probably a good idea to click on Account (at the top of the page) and go to "Edit Friends". One of the really useful things about this page is that it allows you to organize your friends in different lists. A default list will be friends who belong to your network. You can set up additional lists, though, which is a good idea since it will help you control who can see what on your profile (you might not want your great aunt to see the same things your best friend can see). We're used to giving out information freely, but it's safer and wiser to think about what people really need to know about you and to tell people only what you really want them to know. So, I'd recommend setting up at least one additional list to help you control who can see what.

Now, if you click on "Account" and then select "Privacy Settings" you can start setting things up. The first screen you see gives you a quick glance at your privacy settings and allows you to choose from several preset options for controlling your privacy. It is a bad idea to use the "Everyone" preset as that will allow anyone to access all of your information posted on Facebook. The best option is probably to choose the "Recommended" preset and then customize it from there.

Clicking on "Customize settings"brings up a page where you can create settings for each category of information. I won't go into detail about what each category of personal information means (it's mostly self-explanatory); instead, I want to focus on the button with a padlock on it to the right of each category (except "Allow friends to post on my wall"). Clicking that button lets you choose from five options for who can see that category of information: Everyone, Friends and Networks, Friends of Friends, Only Friends, and Custom.

You can see the role that Networks (we talked about them in the post about Account Settings) play in privacy settings. You can imagine the privacy setting options as a set of concentric rings. At the center is you, then your friends, then your friends' friends, then your network(s), then everyone. As you go farther out there are more people. So, if you don't want a lot of people to see your information, you have to set your privacy settings accordingly.

You might have some friends who you don't want to let see as much as other friends are able to see. If this is the case, you should use the "Custom" option. Clicking "Custom" brings up a window with two parts: "Make this visible to:" and "Hide this from:". This allows you to control who can see or not see that category of information down to the levels of individuals. Here you can also use the lists of people you have set up to control your privacy. It's a lot easier than selecting people one at a time.

Just a couple of notes about the rest of these settings:

• Facebook recently simplified the privacy settings so it's a good idea to look at them if you haven't in a while.
• You can set the privacy options for your photo albums by clicking "Edit album privacy." It's important to do this because the default settings for your photo albums may not be what you want them to be.
• It's not a good idea to let everyone see your contact information. Remember that everyone means everyone, not just your friends, not just your networks, and not even just people on Facebook.
• You can see what your Facebook profile looks like to different people by clicking on "Preview my Profile".

Facebook Settings 101: Account Settings

You probably already use Facebook, or you've at least heard about it and considered joining. More and more people are spending more and more time and sharing more and more personal information on Facebook. At some point, it just seems natural and safe to post whatever you want to your profile. The fact is, though, that if you don't spend some time familiarizing yourself with your account, privacy, and application settings, you could wind up with big regrets.

Let's take a look at these three kinds of settings and see how they can help keep social networking safe and fun.

Account Settings

The first thing is knowing how to access your settings. At the top of each Facebook page, there is an "Account" button (to the right of the search bar and right next to "Home" and "Profile"). If you click on "Account", it expands to show several other options, including your account, privacy, and application settings. Click on "Account Settings", and notice the tabs at the top of the page...a lot of settings to look over.

Your first account setting is your name. This is pretty straightforward, but it raises the issue of fake names. Some people like to use fake names for their Facebook profile so they can't be easily found (e.g. by prospective employers). This, however, violates Facebook's "Statement of Rights and Responsibilities". By setting up a Facebook profile, you agree to "not provide any false personal information on Facebook, or create an account for anyone other than yourself without permission." That means that not only should you not use a fake name, but you should also not create a Facebook profile in the name of someone else, like a celebrity. If you use a fake name, your profile may be deleted. Instead of hiding behind a fake name, it's better to only share information and content that you don't mind others seeing and to effectively use your privacy settings to control who can see information about you.

I actually forgot I had a user name until I looked. Your user name defines the URL of your Facebook profile, which means that searches for your user name could turn up your profile.

Your Facebook password is very, very important. I know it's tempting to get careless with passwords, but having a strong password for any website is important, especially Facebook. People's Facebook accounts do get hacked into, and cleaning up afterward is more than a minor nuisance.

I don't have a linked account set up, so if anyone has experience with that, let me know. I imagine it could make life a little more convenient. We'll leave Privacy Settings for another day. Account Security provides the option for Facebook to send you an email when you log in from a device you've never logged in before. That can be a good idea; if you log in from different devices (like lab computers) you should make sure you logout and close the browser window when you're done with Facebook. That's the best way to keep your account safe.

Note that deactivating your account does not permanently delete your information. It only makes it invisible to the rest of the world, and you can reactivate your account whenever you want. If you want to permanently delete your account (I applaud your strength), you have to submit a request here.

Next, if you click on the "Networks" tab, you can see which networks you belong to. Networks are important when it comes to privacy because your privacy settings will set different rules based on whether someone is inside or outside of your network. People who may know you (who go to the same school or work at the same place) will generally be able to see more information about you than people who do not.

The "Notifications" tab lets you determine when you want email or mobile Facebook alerts. I used to get emails when practically anything happened to my Facebook, but that got really annoying quickly. If you don't check your Facebook account regularly, it might be a good idea to set up some notifications to let you know when someone sends you a message or friends you.

If you have a mobile device, the "Mobile" tab will help you set it up to use with Facebook. The "Language" tab is where you set up your default language. People are buying more and more stuff on Facebook these days, so the "Payments" tab is where you set up how you want to pay for purchases. Like any site, use some common sense when giving out your credit card information. You should also be careful with spending your money on Facebook: avoid scams and don't spend money you don't have.

Finally, the "Facebook Ads" tab is where you can allow or disallow Facebook and third party applications from using your personal information in your ads. The most common use of your information in advertising is that if you "like" something, then an ad your friends may see will indicated that you have "liked" it. Facebook ads may also contain your profile picture.

Well, that's all for now. We'll pick up next time with Facebook's Privacy Settings.