Datura: distributing activity in peer to peer collaborative virtual environments

Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) are an exciting advance in the field of Virtual Reality (VR) research. By joining VR systems---and users---at widely scattered geographic locations, VR changes from an isolated experience to one of communication, interaction, and collaboration. Much research effort is being placed into the development of tools and techniques to power these collaborative experiences.;This dissertation describes the Datura toolkit for CVE development and, more importantly, the new concepts and methods that make Datura unique. We focus on the idea of Location of Computation (LoC)---methods for determining where, among all the sites participating in a CVE, particular calculations or particular decisions should be made. Datura connects sites into a peer to peer network, allowing each one to participate fully in bringing the virtual world to life.;Datura works at the level of elements---individual components that imbue shared objects with data, behaviors, and capabilities. These elements are shared among all sites, and control over them can be granted or migrated individually. This dissertation discusses the mechanisms for transferring control and computation, and provides a system for deciding where control should reside for each element in a CVE. An extensive set of tests and evaluations are also described, verifying the capabilities of the Datura system and demonstrating the performance and error-handling gains that are made by this fine-grained control over the location of computation

Mirror - Vol. 09, No. 18 - November 21, 1985

The Mirror (sometimes called the Fairfield Mirror) is the official student newspaper of Fairfield University, and is published weekly during the academic year (September - May). It runs from 1977 - the present; current issues are available online.https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/archives-mirror/1191/thumbnail.jp

Mirror - Vol. 06, No. 06 - September 30, 1982

The Mirror (sometimes called the Fairfield Mirror) is the official student newspaper of Fairfield University, and is published weekly during the academic year (September - May). It runs from 1977 - the present; current issues are available online.https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/archives-mirror/1111/thumbnail.jp

Mirror - Vol. 05, No. 21 - March 4, 1982

The Mirror (sometimes called the Fairfield Mirror) is the official student newspaper of Fairfield University, and is published weekly during the academic year (September - May). It runs from 1977 - the present; current issues are available online.https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/archives-mirror/1104/thumbnail.jp

CTRL SHIFT

CTRL SHIFT makes a case for design under contemporary computation. The abstractions of reading, writing, metaphors, mythology, code, cryptography, interfaces, and other such symbolic languages are leveraged as tools for understanding. Alternative modes of knowledge become access points through which users can subvert the control structures of software. By challenging the singular expertise of programmers, the work presented within advocates for the examination of internalized beliefs, the redistribution of networked power, and the collective sabotage of computational authority

Engineering planetary lasers for interstellar communication

Transmitting large amounts of data efficiently among neighboring stars will vitally support any eventual contact with extrasolar intelligence, whether alien or human. Laser carriers are particularly suitable for high-quality, targeted links. Space laser transmitter systems designed by this work, based on both demonstrated and imminent advanced space technology, could achieve reliable data transfer rates as high as 1 kb/s to matched receivers as far away as 25 pc, a distance including over 700 approximately solar-type stars. The centerpiece of this demonstration study is a fleet of automated spacecraft incorporating adaptive neural-net optical processing active structures, nuclear electric power plants, annular momentum control devices, and ion propulsion. Together the craft sustain, condition, modulate, and direct to stellar targets an infrared laser beam extracted from the natural mesospheric, solar-pumped, stimulated CO2 emission recently discovered at Venus. For a culture already supported by mature interplanetary industry, the cost of building planetary or high-power space laser systems for interstellar communication would be marginal, making such projects relevant for the next human century. Links using high-power lasers might support data transfer rates as high as optical frequencies could ever allow. A nanotechnological society such as we might become would inevitably use 10 to the 20th power b/yr transmission to promote its own evolutionary expansion out of the galaxy

Apparent narrative as thematic metaphor : studies in the organisation of the Faerie Queene

"The world, is changed with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil." For 'the world' read 'moral man', and Hopkins's lines would be the perfect epigraph to Die Faerie Queene, defining both its theme and its mode. Or so this thesis contends. It re-examines Spenser's Letter to Ralegh, so often ignored or even maligned, to find that it makes sense, both internally and with reference to the poem, on two conditions. One is that we grasp the poet's conceptual argument, according to which morality manifests redemption in Christ and thus constitutes the earthly anticipation of heavenly glory. The other is that, for once, we take him literally when he calls his work a continued allegory. Both points are developed in detail, but the latter receives all the emphasis, partly because it concerns a more strictly literary issue and partly because it is highly controversial. To be sure, existing criticism takes for granted the poem's status as allegory. Yet it persists in treating its fiction as narrative. Spenser makes such treatment logically impossible. He invites it only to expose the stories' illusoriness, thus directing the reader to take them as symbols, not exempla. Literally the whole poem falls to pieces, which are united exclusively in virtue of their allegorical meaning. This unity is given. Yet interpretation has to struggle endlessly to work it out: it reveals itself only intermittently, in flashes. Salvation, too, is given. Yet morality has to battle continuously to work it out, being only an elusive intimation of immortality. The poem's mode enacts its theme. Chapter One gets The Faerie Queene as a whole into proper perspective. Chapters Two and Three each discuss a 'narrative strand' in the Kiddle Books; a strategic choice, in that these Books challenge the relevance of the Letter's programme more obviously than any of the Outer Books

CREATING A COHERENT SCORE: THE MUSIC OF SINGLE-PLAYER FANTASY COMPUTER ROLE-PLAYING GAMES

This thesis provides a comprehensive exploration into the music of the ludic genre (Hourigan, 2005) known as a Computer Role-Playing Game (CRPG) and its two main sub-divisions: Japanese and Western Role-Playing Games (JRPGs & WRPGs). It focuses on the narrative category known as genre fiction, concentrating on fantasy fiction (Turco, 1999) and seeks to address one overall question: How do fantasy CRPG composers incorporate the variety of musical material needed to create a coherent score across the JRPG and WRPG divide? Seven main chapters form the thesis text. Chapter One provides an introduction to the thesis, detailing the research contributions in addition to outlining a variety of key terms that must be understood to continue with the rest of the text. A database accompanying this thesis showcases the vast range of CRPGs available; a literature review tackles relevant existing materials. Chapters Two and Three seek to provide the first canonical history of soundtracks used in CRPGs by dissecting typical narrative structures for games so as to provide context to their musical scores. Through analysis of existing game composer interviews, cultural influences are revealed. Chapters Four and Five mirror one another with detailed discussion respectively regarding JRPG and WRPG music including the influence that anime and Hollywood cinema have had upon them. In Chapter Six, the use of CRPG music outside of video games is explored, particularly the popularity of JRPG soundtracks in the concert hall. Chapter Seven concludes the thesis, summarising research contributions achieved and areas for future work. Throughout these chapters, the core task is to explain how the two primary sub-genres of CRPGs parted ways and why the music used to accompany these games differs so drastically

Development of a portable low-cost digital shearography system

Includes summary.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 138-142).Shearography is an optical non-destructive testing technique that is well-suited, but not limited, to testing composite materials. The method takes advantage of the special properties of lasers, namely their high coherence length and monochromatic light, to detect flaws such as cracks, debonds and delaminations in materials