New Sun Press Title: Read Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry, Third Edition

New Sun Press Title: Read Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry, Third Edition

Jeff Gardiner (SL: JeffGardiner SunMicrosystems) and Janice Gelb (SL: Editrix Alter) held a Sun Author Chat today to discuss the new edition of their book. Christy Confetti (SL: Violet Portola) hosted the chat at the Sun Public Island in Second Life. 

Summary: a chat with Sun Technical Publications team members Jeff Gardiner and Janice Gelb on the release of the third edition of the industry-leading style guide "Read Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry". This guide to creating clear, consistent, and easy-to-understand documentation covers everything from writing style to creating lists and procedures to managing schedules and workflow. The book is set to be published in print in November 2009 but is available today online via Safari Books Online.

Pictures from the Author Chat in Second Life, at the Sun Public Island:

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Halloween Time At Disneyland Resort Features New Attractions – Ghost Galaxy at Space Mountain « Disney Parks Blog

Hi, I’m Heather, Social Media Manager at Disneyland Resort. On the Disney Parks Blog we’re offering some behind-the-scenes looks and updates from around our properties.

Our first update is a big one as Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure Parks have a whole new look. Mickey and Friends are decked out in their Halloween best, and the Disney Villains have some tricks up their sleeves for Halloween Time at the Disneyland Resort. Guests will enjoy the spooky atmosphere and this year’s new attractions.

Space Mountain riders will be launched into an uncharted and haunted section of the universe on the new Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy. Out of the darkness and swirling galaxies of Space Mountain, ghosts try to pluck riders from their seats as they speed through space. The drops and curves of the journey are even scarier with piercing screams and haunting music.

Check out the video below, and you just might get goosebumps.

Scare alert: If you find these haunting thrills too frightening you can still enjoy the outside of Space Mountain. The mountain’s exterior will transform into a show that includes new lights, audio and eerie images.

Can’t visit the Parks during the Halloween time but still want to be a part of the fun? Then go to www.disneyland.com/halloween and check out the games and crafts. You can play with the Disney Villains and print out coloring sheets and fun masks.

via disneyparks.disney.go.com

ooh, I'm thinking maybe we need to go to Disneyland for Halloween...

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SLS Facebook Era Presentation Notes

Sun Learning Services Author Chat: Clara Shih, Author of The Facebook Era and CEO of Hearsay Labs (SL: ClaraShih Zufreur)

Where: Sun Campus in Second Life (SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sun Microsystems 1/141/132/23)
When: September 28, 2009 - 5pm SLT / PT

#thefacebookera

Topic: Sales, Marketing, and Business in the Facebook Era

Abstract: Last decade was about the World Wide Web of information and the power of linking content pages. Today, it's about the World Wide Web of people and the power of the online social graph across sites. Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin are rewriting the rules for customer engagement, interactions, and relationships. Social networking sites are changing everything we thought we knew about sales, marketing, and product development -- and empowering companies with new tools, insights, and ability to transform customers into true partners and your most effective sales force yet. Bestselling author and social networking expert Clara Shih will walk through the radical business transformation taking place and what sales, marketers, and professionals must do to thrive and win in the Facebook Era.

Clara’s breakthrough idea was that using Facebook, business professionals could get to know the person behind the name and title, and thereby build a larger number of richer, more personal, and longer-lasting business relationships with customers, prospects, business partners, and colleagues.

"Facebook is CRM"

Four Pillars: 

1. Facebook Apps
2. Facebook Pages
3. Facebook Ads
4. Twitter

Facebook has given us trusted online identity

Twitter asymmetric relationships

Big Brother Creepiness? Just Share Less

Ways to manage social media, constant updates: Nutshell Mail aggregates all and updates (I use EventBox)

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Fountain Blue Virtual Worlds Conference

Virtual Worlds:

 Where We Were, Where We're Going, What Does It Mean to YOU?

[here are my mostly raw notes from this conference]

Ben Duranske, Pillsbury Winthrop (ppt slides): Internet in 1994—walled gardens (AIL, CompuServe, Prodigy); then Mosaic to access anybody's web content. Simlar to virtual worlds today, *bandwidth, process power, ease of access*. technical challenges, reliability, ease if access. Dangerous?

people standing around talking vs. people playing

200+ virtual worlds/ games where people pay

*Panel on Virtual World Business Trends

Sibley Verbeck, Electric Sheep
Virtual Worlds (VW) are a feature set, not a destination.
* kids entertainment
* 13+ year old games & entertainment (incl Facebook)
* business uses (training, events, etc. )
Michael Gold, Electrotank: "questing" can be anywhere, anything; "crafting" (collect ingredients and follow recipe); user-generated content.
Joshua Bell, Linden: standards work for VW. How do we pick which medium to use? phone, email, Texting, Twitter/ Facebook,
narrow- vs. broad-cast
planning World of Warcraft (WOW) raids in Second Life, then go execute
Lotus Same Time 3D, standards

"Puzzle Pirates" figured out (time vs. money) 1 hour of kids time = $0.25 to an adult

future of input devices? 3d mouse, webcams, Wii

>60% SL users non-U.S.

Why use/ have an avatar?
Near term future is with military, corporations lagging behind.

*Panel on Virtual World Case Studies*
mutual admiration society / respect for "heavy-lifting" Second Life did.
PS3 Home real combo of VR, game, 2D & 3D social networking.
balance of a/ synchronous
TiVo taught us to time shift content, on demand.
Training
PS3H "Warhawk" training & strategy space, has sand table, launches directly into game, and back

PS3H 3D data visualization is key, SoCom leaderboad, for game overall, and in space

how first 5 min look, appetite for learning/ time.
Plan for these: 4*30s: 1st 30sec enjoyable, 30min, 30days, 30weeks (6 mos)

input, display, sound
multi-tasking for kids (games, texting, music, homework, etc. ) doesn't a fighter pilot have as much to do/ track?

Augmented reality already exists (glasses, peope walk up to something, pull out iPhone). SFMOMA use? already blurring line between real & virtual life.

*Chris Platz from Stanford, "Sirikata"* open source, Mixed Reality, synchronized timing (accommodates lag) for simultaneous music creation. browser accessible

*Nicole, WonderLand*

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Untitled

Dawn /finally/ beat Zelda: Twilight Princess

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ProtoSphere – Virtual Collaboration for Business « ProtonMedia

via protonmedia.com

WebEx meets Second Life, but Windows only? How 1990s... and I thought even Microsoft was discouraging the use of IE6...

Minimum System Requirements
Minimum requirements for running ProtoSphere

Hardware:
Specification:
Processor
2.4ghz Pentium class processor or equivalent
Memory
1GB of system RAM
Storage
At least 300MB of free disk space
Display Size
1024x768 minimum resolution
Color Palette
32 bit
Video
3D-capable video card with 32MB of Video RAM and Direct-X 8.1 min. hardware support
Recommended Cards include:
ATI Radeon 9000 series or better
OR
NVidia GeForce FX 5200 or better
Audio
Onboard sound card w/ external USB headset
Connection Speed
Broadband
Software:

Operating System
Windows 2000 SP4 w/ Direct-X 9.0c,
Windows XP SP2
Browsers
Internet Explorer 6 +

Plug-ins
FLASH 7 +

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ProtoSphere – Virtual Collaboration for Business « ProtonMedia

via protonmedia.com

WebEx meets Second Life... but Windows only?? How 1990s...

(skip ahead to the 3min mark for the interesting stuff)

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TED Talk: Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry demo SixthSense

via ted.com

The current hardware setup, although less than $350, is a little unwieldy, but I can imagine how great this would be if someone like Apple decided to design it. Can you imagine an iPod Nano VR?

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Another Galaxy Far Away Comes To Disney - Star Wars - io9

Star Wars

Another Galaxy Far Away Comes To Disney

By Graeme McMillan, 12:20 PM on Mon Sep 14 2009, 7,724 views (Edit, to draft, Slurp)

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At this weekend's D23 convention in Anaheim, Disney finally officially announced that Star Tours II will be coming to Disneyland next year - and showed a quick glimpse of what to expect. Click through for video.

The new ride - initially announced way back in 2005 - will replace the existing Star Tours attraction and feature HD 3D visuals, a new motion simulator and new locales including Tatooine pod-racing, as seen in the video below. The announcement came complete with a guest appearance from Darth Vader, who showed that Empire upper management is really focused on the details these days:

[YouTube] (Via)

via io9.com

This ride has still stayed fun after all these years, but I love the idea of adding pod racing! I guess it will get long lines again, though, although maybe it will help the lines for Buzz Lightyear and Finding Nemo! :)

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Labor Day Weekend at Disneyland!

For Labor Day Weekend, we met with friends and family at Disneyland for the annual 1/2 Marathon Weekend. Due to injuries sustained earlier in the season, our two "real" runners could only help out in the Kids' Races on Saturday. But I think they still had fun! Here's a picture of Dawn getting ditched (I mean, trying to keep an eye on) Davis, Kohei, and Sabine (not shown):

I never saw those three kids, but soon Joseph & Ron appeared:

There were two last runners in this group (4–7 year olds, but I don't think either made the cut), you can see them in the distance! I think Akemi's going to want to run with Kohei's age group forever, now, she got so much applause!

We all went over to California Adventure to ride Toy Story Mania:

Then we cut in front of a guy who was having the time of his life, at Disneyland by himself, so we could get a group picture!

Sunday

Unfortunately, our local friends had to go home, but many of us stayed on to enjoy the surprisingly not crowded park! (We even got repeats on Splash Mountain and Winnie the Pooh!)

I guess we didn't have the King of Camelot with us that day, although all the "kids" tried:

Teacups were as popular as ever:

(don't watch the video if you might get seasick!)

Download now or watch on posterous

CIMG2843.MOV (18257 KB)

Some people enjoyed It's a Small World, and I went on it, too.

And it turns out Lightening McQueen can even get Joseph to smile for a picture!

Monday

Many of us had a long drives ahead of us, but we decided to go to the park again for just a few hours. We went on Indiana Jones, California Screamin', and got a carmel apple! Then to cap it off, we went on Toy Story Mania! to cap off our weekend, and Dawn got a really high score. That was the first time we've seen the antelope, although I think it was only about half of the high scores posted for the day! How do they do that??

How many days until our next trip?

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Buzz Lightyear!

For Labor Day Weekend, we met with friends and family at Disneyland for the annual 1/2 Marathon Weekend. We did lots of stuff, but we ended our day riding Buzz Lightyear (maybe more than once). Here's pictures of us, even though some of our shorter ones didn't quite make the height requirement of the photographer!

Two Sorcerers

 

Diana & Dawn

 

Diana & Joseph

 

Davis & Kohei

 

Makoto, Akemi, & Lisa

 

Matt

 

Addy & Sabine

 

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Burning Dog Tournament

I had such a great time at the Burning Dog Tournament this weekend. While our club, Bay Racers, hosted it, really Stacey & Anne-Marie did all of the work. We just helped (and brought our usual raffle items).

 Saturday was International Talk Like a Pirate Day. I had found a purple Pirate Poker tee-shirt to wear, and I tried to contribute by playing with the dogs while saying "Arrrggghhhh". But Makoto and Akemi /really/ dressed up:

Pirates Akemi, Makoto, & friends check out Akemi's 2nd Birthday Cake!
 
Near the end of the day on Saturday, 13-year-old Kami really came through, and earned her Flyball Dog Champion 40,000 title. Her boxloader, Manny, gave her a special ball to carry back on that run:

At Awards, Griff was presented with his Flyball Dog Champion 40K Plaque:

Our Regional Director, Bill Carter, made a very nice framed write-up for him to present as well. Griff was a real trooper this weekend, running full-time on Little Dinghies, for a total, I think, of 3 points. Good thing he's not still trying to get to 40,000!
 
Speaking of Little Dinghies, we celebrated their amazing miraculous 3rd place finish by fixing Little Dinghies for all and Mike's great chicken barrel BBQ:

Yum yum! (Pineapple juice, rum, cranberry juice, orange juice, coconut rum)
 
Sunday started out great! Both Buster & Tasha brought back their 50,000 balls (although I think Tasha actually earned hers last month). Here's Buster with his ball—guess what he did 0.342 seconds after I snapped this picture? :)

Unfortunately, Buster got hurt somehow part way through the day on Sunday. He didn't want to race, or really even play with his tennis balls, which is very unusual for him! But after a quiet day today, and a little easy swim in the river yesterday, he seems better already. But that did give Spinnakers the edge for the Tail-End Award! He did play a little with one of his birthday presents today, a big Chuck-It ball! Happy Birthday, Buster!
 
I think we had the most "success" with our Little Dinghies team. I think Lucy is really figuring out the game, Snickers had his first real clean run, and Rosie had the most fun she's ever had at a tournament! (this with loud airplanes, photographers, and construction explosions going off!) Lots of successes, and the next batch of Bay Racers is really coming along!
 
So, not only was the new tournament site a big hit, with the nice parking lot and river for swimming just right there (close enough for Taz to make a run for it; she made it even though Karen is fast); we liked the nearby RV park. And, although we were really worried about the traffic because of all the construction on I80, we had no trouble getting through, and got home before midnight! Yay! (and hooray for Harry Potter audiobooks). I think this new tournament site will be an annual event, Congrats to Anne-Marie and Stacey!

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