• None!

• None! Yer outta here!
• Get ready for the finals in your other classes.

• Once more we try to see Luke present his Second Life Sim.
• I found my old Sims on a Cell Phone Paper.

• None. We be done in Second Life! (For real this time!)

• Repurposing Hardware

• Cell Phone Challenge

• Luke presents his Second Life Sim

• None. We be done in Second Life!

• I collect any holiday decorations that you've found to donate!
• Luke presents his Second Life Sim

• Have a good Thanksgiving! See you in SL next week.

• Real Life Sims by
  • Heather
  • Stephen
  • Cliff
• Augmented Reality

• Are you kidding? Next week is Thanksgiving Thursday!

• Did we have any scavenger hunt items to show off? If so, we'll look at them.
• Second Life Sim presentation by Jerilyn

• Holiday decorations that you can transfer to me so I can decorate!

• Software Simulation Show-Off!
  • Get there early and get things installed and working.

• None. Take a breath.

• Second Life presentations from Cliff
• Open House Invitation
• Novint Falcon
• Stiff People's League
• Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds

• Finish up the Software Sim.
• Get to class early on Thurs to get things installed, tested, and running!

• None. Next week we see those software sim packages! Be here early and get things installed!

• Today we look at the things your Halloween costumes.
• Then we have Second Life Sim tours by: Cliff
• And that's it for the day because I know you're working feverishly on your Software Simulation programming.

• Scavenger Hunt: Robots!

• Halloween Magic Trick!
• Real Life Sims by Mike & Josh
• Gather the packets.
  • One set for me to grade.
  • One set for your eventual programmer.
• Subject Matter Experts
• CBT Production Teams

• Software Simulation Production

• Today we look at the things you made with the building tools.
• Then we have Second Life Sim tours by: Ricky
• A possible location of my own...if I find something.

• Scavenger Hunt: Halloween Costume!

• Show off your scavenger hunt items! Wings, I believe!
• Second Life Sim Presentations by Heather & Bobby

• Scavenger Hunt: Make Something!

• Oddware Presentations by Luke and Jesse
• Software Simulations
  • Client Viewpoint
  • Instructional Designer

• Instructional Design Packag

• Show off your scavenger hunt items!
• Second Life Sim Presentations by Heather & Stephen

• Scavenger Hunt: Wings!

• No Homework. Take a rest.

• Meet with Circe.

• No Homework. Oddware presentations on Thursday.

• Complex Systems Modeling

• None. Oddware due next week.

How a computer game glitch could help to fight off global pandemic

(From The Times Online. August 21, 2007. http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/gadgets_and_gaming/article2296354.ece)

When it comes to the science of surviving a potentially deadly outbreak, there is one question that has always proved particularly tricky for experts.

How do you study the spread of an epidemic, and thus form an emergency plan to ensure the survival of the human race, without putting the population at risk of a real disease?

Researchers have now made an unlikely breakthrough, thanks to a glitch in a fantasy computer game. In an online game called World of Warcraft, an unexpected error in the software has provided a ready-made laboratory for studying the effects of an epidemic.

The 6.5 million players who control characters in the role-playing game supplied the necessary element of unpredictable human reactions without any risk to the real world.

The discovery, revealed in next month’s issue of The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, has been hailed as a significant step forward in understanding how a deadly virus could break out.

“By using these games as an untapped experimental framework, we may be able to gain deeper insight into the incredible complexity of infectious disease epidemiology in social groups,” wrote the authors, Eric Lofgren, of Rutgers University, New Jersey, and Nina Fefferman, of Tufts University, Boston.

And it all happened by accident. In September 2005 what was intended as a minor hindrance for a small group of characters spiralled beyond the control of program-makers into a full-blown epidemic.

A new villain, a winged serpent called Hakkar, originally designed as a challenge for only the strongest characters, started transmitting its “corrupted blood” virus down the ranks until it affected almost every area and every player in the game.

The scientists were able to monitor how quickly the disease spread and where to, while assessing the players’ individual responses to the outbreak. The particular features of the game, such as the many hours players around the world dedicate to it and the emotional investment they put into their online alter egos, offer scientists a tantalisingly close match to real social conditions.

As the virus spread, very real challenges emerged, such as the failure of quarantine measures, further transmission by character’s pets and the existence of “immune” characters, who act as carriers, passing the virus to others while failing to succumb to symptoms.

Professor Fefferman said that the findings could be of great value to public health officials in developing the best way to manage the flow of information in such a crisis. “If, God forbid, a disease broke out in London, you could see what would happen if people were told immediately of the risk. Would there be panic and chaos, or would it allow them to psychologically accept the danger and act accordingly? What would happen if we made people feel too reassured?

“These are all things that have a great impact on the number of people who would be affected. They are also things we just don’t know, so [virtual games] could be of great value in helping us understand what their true emotional responses would be.”