Third Annual State of Play Conference on Law and Virtual Worlds to Examine ‘Social Revolutions’
Participants will explore social interaction, collective action in massively multiplayer online games on October 6-8, 2005 at New York Law School
eBay Buys Skype 4 2 Much Money
When I heard these rumors last week I assumed that it was just somebody’s idea of a bad joke. What does eBay get for its money? A non-standard geek infested VOIP phone system? Why? I getthat eBay could build all sorts of nifty VOIP apps to helps its business, but come on $2.6 billion? Just download Asterisk and go to town. I hope thgere is more to this story.
Slashdot | eBay To Buy Skype For $2.6 Billion
“It’s not a rumour anymore. BBC News online reports that eBay will pay ‘half the amount in cash and the other half in stocks to create an unparalleled e-commerce and communications engine’.” The $2.6 billion purchase would give eBay access to the VoIP market, of which Skype claims it has 2 million users online at any given time. BBC speculates that eBay will use Skype to allow sellers and bidders to communicate via voice; I have also heard that live auctions a la Sothebys might also be a possibility. Also reported at Wall Street Journal (registration), New York Times.“
PHP Voice – Classes for dealing with voice in PHP apps
I wonder if I can break this?
freshmeat.net: Project details for PHP Voice
PHP Voice (formerly known as PHP VXML) contain four classes that assist in developing voice application using PHP. It supports Speech Synthesis Markup Language 1.0, Speech Recognition Grammar Specification 1.0, Voice Browser Call Control: CCXML 1.0, and Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) 2.0.
Classcaster Launched
Well, I got this out the door today. We went from concept to product in right around 6 months. I suppose I should say I not we since I did the actual development myself.
In a nutshell, Classcaster is a turn-key blogging, podcasting, audio-blogging, telephony solution aimed at education (that is CALI’s mission after all). Yep, on this one system you get a blog, podcast ready, the capalbilty to call in posts, RSS2 feeds with enclosures, an embedded Flash player, automatic generation of posts once a call is complete. Pretty cool. Next is an ISO version so you play along at home:)
www.cali.org – CALI Spotlight
CALI is excited to announce the immeadiate availability of Classcaster. Classcaster is a course blogging and podcasting system that provides faculty, librarians, and staff of CALI member schools with a new way to interact with students and communities. A Classcaster blog provides authors with tools for posting not only traditional blog articles but also tools for podcasting and sharing any documents and/or files with students and communities. Members of the CALI community interested in using Classcaster should first visit the Classcaster FAQ for instructions on using the system.
Zimbra Release Beta of Collab Suite
Techworld.com – Zimbra releases open-source Notes alternative
Zimbra has released a beta of its enterprise collaboration software – an open-source alternative Lotus Notes and Exchange Server.The start-up that lured Scott Dietzen away from his former job as chief technology officer of BEA has called the software the Zimbra Collaboration Suite. It includes e-mail, contact and calendar software.
New Virtual Desktop Platform Bows
Virtual desktop platform runs multiple OSes, including legacies
Parallels Inc. Wednesday released a beta version of its first product, a virtual machine platform that runs multiple operating systems concurrently. Parallels Workstation runs the Red Hat, Novell/SUSE, Mandriva, Debian, and Fedora Core Linux distributions, FreeBSD, and all versions of Windows — even “legacy” systems such as OS/2 and MS-DOS, the company said.Each “guest” OS (operating system) can be launched and utilized in networked, portable, independent virtual environments, according to the company. Virtual machine properties, computing priorities, and file structures are managed using an “intuitive” control console, the company said. The “host” OS can be various Linux distributions or Windows.
CSS Showcase Zen Garden Archives Gets a Facelift
Worth noting. Zen Garden Archives is one of the best resources for getting your hands on quality CSS stuff and now it’s even better!
Duke Schedules a Podcasting Symposium
Looks like Duke is getting into this big time. Thanks to Patty for posting this to teknoids.
Duke Podcasting Symposium :: September 27 – 28, 2005
Duke University is pleased to announce that we will be hosting the first-ever academic symposium on podcasting from September 27-28 of this year. The two-day event will feature a hands-on podcasting workshop, as well as panel discussions of the economic/business, legal, political, journalistic, and cultural impacts of podcasting by bringing together prominent members of the podcasting community with policymakers, scholars, and media experts.
TB-303 Give-Aways from Propellerheads and d-lusion
Slashdot | TB-303 Give-Aways from Propellerheads and d-lusion
“Good news for those of you who are into music synthesizers: Propellerheads has opened its Rebirth Museum and gives away the ‘revolutionary’ software simulation of the classic Roland TB-303. Interestingly, that happened just a day after the small German company d-lusion released another ‘legendary’ TB-303 simulator called Rubberduck as a free give-away.”
Creating a Software Demo Using OS Tools
NewsForge | Creating a software demo with Impress
If you’ve ever tried to explain how a particular feature or application works without actually showing it, you know how difficult that can be. A good software demo can really save the day for anyone from developers wanting to demonstrate their software to home users trying to explain to their family members how to create a simple document. If you want to create a software demo, you don’t have to buy an expensive closed source application such as Demo Builder, Viewlet Builder, or Turbo Demo. Instead, you can use free software tools that may already be installed on your machine, namely the GIMP and Impress. Here is how to create a software demo that includes some essential elements: cursor movements, button clicks, animated menus, and callouts.