An in-depth analysis of the two formats reveals no clear winner.HD-DVDs, for example, are much easier to manufacture than Bly-ray discs, resulting in lower costs for customers, and higher profits for distributors.HD-DVD discs can also contain a “hybrid” feature, which allows them to be played on both standard DVD players, as well as HD-DVD players.From storage perspective, Blu-ray is the clear winner.Their single-layer discs have a capacity of around 25 GB, while their double-layer discs can hold up to 50 GB of content.HD-DVD’s storage capacity, on the other hand, clocks in at 15 GB and 30 GB for their single- and double-layer discs, respectively.Yet, despite this additional storage space, many believe that Blu-ray suffers from inferior picture quality.

Blue-ray’s quality issues stem from Sony’s initial adoption of the MPEG-2 video compression codec, which is somewhat less efficient and more space-hungry than HD-DVD’s VC-1 compression algorithm.Moreover, many of the first generation Blu-ray discs were single layer (25 GB), while most of the first generation HD-DVD discs were double layer (30 GB).By coupling an efficient codec with a larger storage capacity, HD-DVD was able to create disks with better picture quality.Recently, however, Blue-ray discs have begun to switch to VC-1.As a result, the picture quality of Blue-ray is now on par with HD-DVD.

Toshiba conceded defeat following Wal-Mart’s announcement that they were no longer going to carry HD-DVD players or movies in their stores.In addition, previously, many influential corporations had thrown their support behind Blu-ray, including Blockbuster, Amazon.com, Best Buy, Netflix, and Apple.Blu-ray has also always had support from a majority of Hollywood’s major movie studios.In the end, however, the declaration of a winner in the HD format wars seems somewhat arbitrary.Both systems had clear advantages in some areas, and disadvantages in others.Fortunately, HD-DVD’s admission of defeat has effectively resolved the issue, and it is now only a matter of time before Sony’s Blu-ray format is widely adopted.For the many consumers who were delaying their decision to purchase a next generation player, the choice of format is no longer a cause for concern.

ISTania in SecondLife

“I believe that virtual worlds are today where the PCs were in 1986” said Professor Santoro in reference to the popular virtual world, Second Life. Second Life is a virtual world which was launched in 2003 by Linden Labs. In this virtual world, users can fly, socialize, and visit famous places, such as the Sistine Chapel and Ancient Rome, all without ever leaving their seat. Although, it is not the only virtual world available, it is by far the most popular. Presently, IST has an island, called ISTania, within this world. IST is also looking into purchasing a second island in the near future. In total, Penn State owns around five islands, with IST leading the way. PSU and IST have been coordinating their development efforts with the Educational Gaming Commons.

Second life has been used by the College of IST in many ways. Several IST professors, including Gerry Santoro, Andrea Tapia, and Jan Mahar, have used Second Life in their IST 110 class. In Professor Tapia’s honors class, students created a virtual dance party. A link to a clip of this project can be found at the bottom of the article. In Professor Santoro’s IST 110 class, students are assigned to explore the virtual world and then write a paper on how people interact with technology. In addition, in his SRA 111 class, Professor Santoro has his students examine issues regarding privacy and security. These issues include identity theft and harassment. Professor Santoro believes the software serves “to prepare the students and help them become familiar with and gain experience with something that will become a major, or the major, technology for access to digital information ten to twenty years from now.” Finally, Lynette Kvasny’s IST 402 class, Emerging Issues and Technologies, also makes use of Second Life. In this class, students examine virtual worlds as emerging forms of popular entertainment.

Coming soon to ISTania is a virtual interpretation of Dante’s Divine Comedy. This project, known as the Neo-Dante project, is in the process of creating three towers representing the each three books. The idea emerged after a conversation between Dean Foley and Professor Santoro. Coincidentally, Todd Behrens, a senior who is also working on the project, recently took a class where he had to read and interpret the Divine Comedy.

Another possible use of Second Life is to foster social inclusion for older generations. Instead of being locked in their home with no connection to the outside world, they could use Second Life to feel connected and engage in social interaction. For example, elderly people who are immobile could use Second Life in order to take virtual trips with their grandchildren.

As new technologies continue to emerge, the way in which we interact virtually will improve greatly. For example, significant progress is currently being made with Brain-computer interface, a device that hopes to some day give “humans the power to mentally control computers.” More information on this topic is available by clicking the link below.

Brain-Computer Interface

ISTania Seminar Shack Tour

IST 110H Dance Party

Beaver Stadium Overview

Neo-Dante Project

The use of social networking websites is nothing new to college students. Many students use one or more online social networking websites on a daily basis. Two years ago, 85% of college student said that they were registered users of Facebook.comi.  This number has continued to grow, with Facebook.com now having over 63 million usersii.  The world’s most popular social networking website, MySpace.com, has over 110 Million active usersiii.  MySpace and Facebook rank seventh and sixth respectively in global access according to the Alexa rankingsiv.  However, these websites were not always at the top of the list, and someday their popularity may begin to decline, especially as alternative social networking sites begin to appear.  Here, the question is whether there is an actual decline in the use of an individual social networking site when a new site enters the market.

I had initially planned to predict the decline of Facebook.com based on the previous decline of other social networking sites such as MySpace.com and Xanga.com. Unfortunately, after performing some basic research, I found the opposite to be true.  The majority of social networking websites are actually growing faster than ever. According to Alexa, five of the top twenty websites are social networking websites. Each continent has a social networking website that its inhabitants tend to prefer. Europe uses Hi5.com, which ranks eighth, Asia uses Friendster.com, which ranks sixteenth, and South America uses Google-owned Orkut.com, which ranks tenth.  America is a split between Facebook.com and MySpacev.  Judging by these rankings, there is no true decline in the use of any individual social networking website, except for Xanga.com, which appears to be hemorrhaging regular users. Xanga.com’s Alexa ranking has dropped from 60 to 105 in less than a yearvi,vii.  However, with so many social networking websites on the rise, why do people believe that, when a new site appears, all others decline?

Xanga.com was one of the earliest social networking sites that high school and college students fell in love with. They offer user profiles, picture storage, blogs and more. However, in a social network dominated society, why is it that Xanga.com has lost so many users? First, Xanga is not completely free.  In addition,  many other social networking websites have begun to add or adapt features in order to gain interest. MySpace.com started in 1999, about the same time as Xanga.com.  However, it was not until late 2004 that the popularity of MySpace.com began to increase significantly.  MySpace eventually surpassed Xanga.com’s popularity in 2006.  Early on, MySpace.com actually offered fewer features than Xanga.com.  However, with the increasing popularity of MySpace.com came additional features.

Possible reasons for Xanga.com’s decline was their introduction of privacy controls before MySpace.com, and the fact that News Corp. purchased MySpace.com.  News Corp.’s purchase of MySpace.com provided them with the financial backing needed to expand their site significantly.  Once users discovered MySpace.com, they began to abandon their Xanga.com profilesviii,ix. The initial creation of Facebook.com did not pose a threat to MySpace.com as the preferred social networking site, and today this is still the case.  When Facebook.com was originally created in 2004, it was meant as a simple “social utility” for college studentsx.  It has since expanded past college students to include high school students, and currently, anyone can join Facebook.  However, MySpace.com does not appear to be losing users and registrations to Facebook.com.  It is important to note here that approximately 64% of Facebook.com users also use MySpace.com on a regular basisxi.   MySpace.com and Facebook.com both appear to serve different demographics.

Facebook.com is meant for those in college and the business world. MySpace.com, on the other hand, appeals more to the teen scene, much like its predecessor Xanga.com.  MySpace also appeals to those who like the idea of self-expression, and those who are looking for a place to promote their music, film or artwork.  Another theory is that those who are dual-users no longer want to abandon their profiles because they have invested a great deal of time into their creation and updatingxii. However, this still does not explain why some people are under the belief that MySpace.com is declining.

The idea that MySpace.com is losing popularity comes from those who have fled MySpace.com and joined other social networking sites, such as Facebook.com. The original dissenters left MySpace.com in order to join Facebook.com due to the exclusive college-only community that Facebook offered. Now, it seems likely that people believe that MySpace.com is declining due to the increased popularity of Facebook.com.  People also seem to believe that MySpace.com is declining due to their over-saturation with advertising and malicious content, including pornographic spam messages and false friend requests.  Even with all these issues, people still log-in to MySpace.com regularly, and many still use it as there primary social networking website.

A majority of social networking sites are not on the decline.  Rather, they merely appear to decline when a new and trendy social networking site is born and attracts a great deal of interest. Only when the next trendy social networking site appears will users begin to believe Facebook.com is on a decline. Another sign that might signal the downfall of Facebook.com is the introduction of open-source applications. Facebook applications were created in order to allow users to customize their profiles, similar to the way that they can on MySpace.com.
Unfortunately, the applications are beginning to get out of hand because of their ability to send spam-like messages to other users.  Many users are ignoring the fact that the majority of their friends do not want to deal with applications like “Am I Hot” or “What Type of Bride are You,” especially these users that originally joined Facebook.com due to its conformity and simplicity. Because they are open-source, these applications are also beginning to host malicious content and ads like MySpace.com.  It is those who are aggravated by these new features who will be the first to jump ship when the next trendy social networking site is created.  It can be estimated that this false decline will not occur for at least another 12-18 months, according to the past trends of MySpace.com, Xanga.com, and Facebook.com.  Until then, users will continue to hypocritically complain about MySpace.com and Facebook.com while they spend hours a day checking and updating both.

Every year, many products are over-hyped by both corporations and consumers alike.  Initially, everyone feels like they need to have these exciting items. Unfortunately, some of these products can be a big let down.  Moreover, they can lead to feelings of disappointment once people realize how much money they actually spent for them. In this article, I will discuss the top five let downs of 2007.

The first let down of 2007 is X-Box 360’s X-Box Live program.  On Christmas day, over 5 million people signed onto Microsoft’s X-Box Live service for the first time.  This high volume of traffic cased Microsoft’s servers to crash.  X-Box Live supports over 10 million people.  Yet, none of them could use the service because of the crash.  Many people were excited about playing X-Box Live and Halo 3 for the first time.  Unfortunately, none of them could do so on Christmas day.

The second let down is Nintendo’s Wii video gaming counsel. The Wii is an extremely popular product, and it has continued to enjoy sales from people of all ages.  However, some were not truly satisfied with their purchase.  Despite Wii’s many games, controllers, and accessories, there simply are not many games available that strike people’s interests.  Many Wii owners have a wide assortment of games that they simply do not play.

The third of the top five let downs of 2007 is the iPhone. The iPhone has a very slick design, and many people wanted one the moment that they saw it advertised on TV. Unfortunately, Apple’s decision to use AT&T as their only service provider ruined the deal for many potential customers.  In additional, some current iPhone users have begun to realize that they may have been the victim of Apple’s hype.

The fourth let down is Windows Vista. Vista, Microsoft’s newest operating system, was supposed to revolutionize the industry.  However, many of the people who have bought Vista have subsequently switched back to windows XP, the older version of the Windows operating system.  Many corporations have also stated that Vista has been a let down, and that it has caused many more problems than they had intally anticipated.  People who are thinking about upgrading to Vista should consider waiting for Microsoft to iron out all of the bugs before making the switch.

The final let down of the year is Microsoft’s Zune MP3 player. This product that was supposed to be an iPod killer.  Unfortunately, it did nothing of the sort. This over-hyped product is ugly and has has clunky controls.  In addition, its interface is not nearly as intuitive as iPod’s.  It is unlikely that this poorly designed MP3 player will significantly affect iPod sales.

Hopefully, this article has served to illustrate some of the least successful products of 2007.  Fortunately, things are already looking up for most of the products mentioned.  X-Box Live is back up and running, Wii will soon to be coming out with Super Smash Bros. Brawl and a new Mario Kart game, and Apple has been releasing software updates that increase the overall functionality of the iPhone.

Have you ever wondered how Google has been able to return accurate images whenever you enter a query? Or maybe you wondered how best to improve “spellcheck” applications in order to allow for the recognition of words outside of the dictionary. These are just some of the ideas Google has recently been working on. During the recent IST Graduate Symposium, Peter Norvig, Director of Research at Google, presented some of the advancements that his company has made in areas of text and image modeling. Text and image modeling involves identifying the needs of a specific set of users.  Norvig described the history of these concepts in relation to how artwork, movies, dictionaries, and books originally set out to address people’s needs.  The advancement of these concepts was the focus of Norvig’s presentation.

In the realm of image modeling, Norvig first detailed some of the advancements shown at SigGraph 2007, a digital media conference held every summer. These advancements include Automatic Photo Resizing and Scene Completion. Automatic Photo Resizing is the concept of being able to adjust the size of an image without distorting its original content. This is done by taking an isolated area of pixels in an image and using a mathematical algorithm to accurately expand or condense that area in real time. Scene Completion looks at the process of editing incomplete photos by comparing the unfinished area to millions of similar photos in a database.  A correct match allows for the completion of the image. Both of these design concepts were not originally developed at Google.

Specifically, Google’s Image Modeling research focuses on People Annotation and Image search Queries.  People Annotation is the concept of making sure that the correct individuals are returned whenever an image query is entered. For example, how do we know that the images returned when searching for Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, are really pictures of him? While many people know what he looks like, there are some who do not.  Google’s People Annotation algorithm compares results of such queries to the millions of real images of famous individuals that are stored in Google’s databases. In essence, this ensures that most of the images that are returned correspond to the real Steve Jobs, and not some other individual. Image search Queries use image models to find images that meet users’ needs without the use of keywords. This involves analysing the colors and distinct features that could appear similar images.

Google’s advancements in text modeling include Segmentation and a more advanced version of Spellcheck. Segmentation is the concept of dissecting a cluster of text in order to figure out what is actually being stated. For example, given the string “smallandinsignificant,” how would individuals or computers figure out the actual individual words within this cluster.  Segmentation looks at the first “s” and measure the probability of that being a word.  In this case, it is not likely that “s” is a word.  Therefore, it will move on to “sm” and use the same idea until it comes up with the answer, “small and in significant.”  This allows the computer to get close to what the user might be actually be looking for, which is “small and insignificant.”

Google’s newly developed Spellcheck uses more than the dictionary in order to check spelling. Instead, it uses databases of words obtained from multiple sources in different environments. Using this technology, words like Google or Facebook will no longer have the red lines beneath them.  These are just a few examples of how Google plans to continue to use text models to assess users’ needs.

Overall, these advancements in Image and Text Models emphasize the importance of trying to identify the exact needs of users’. With concepts such as People Annotation and Segmentation, users will be able to get more out of the services that Google offers.  Norvig ended his presentation with the quote, “There is nothing nowadays that our children fail to know.”  This serves to illustrate how, as technology improves, information will continue to become more accurate and beneficial.

Nearly everyone has either played or heard about video games. Many gaming councils have been released in the past decade, with PlayStation 3 being one of the most recent. In this article, I will discuss the PlayStation 3 and its future within the gaming industry.

PlayStation 3 is currently the most advanced video game system available on the market. Unfortunately, few people are fond of this new system. When the console was first released, many rejected it due to its price. Sony initially released two different versions of the system; a basic version for 500 dollars, and a fully featured version for 600 dollars. This pricing scheme did not last long, as Sony’s sales were not as high as expected. For the 2007 Christmas season, Sony dropped the price of the fully featured version to 500 dollars. Price wasn’t the only thing that was altered; Sony also changed what was included the box.

Currently, Sony has two different versions of the PlayStation 3 available for purchase: a 400 dollar 60 gigabyte version, and a 500 dollar 80 gigabyte version. What exactly are the primary differences between the two systems? In addition to a larger hard drive, the 500 dollar version also contains 4 USB ports, and is able to play all PS1 and PS2 games. The 400 dollar package, on the other hand, contains a smaller hard drive and only 2 USB ports. Moreover, this version cannot play old PS1 or PS2 games.

Sony plans to make additional changes to the PlayStation 3 soon. Currently, many websites are reporting that Sony will soon to discontinue the 60 and 80 gigabyte PlayStation 3s and replace them with 120 gigabyte and 160 gigabyte versions. In addition, these new packages will also include Sony’s Dual Shock Analog 3 controller, which will be available separately for those who did not purchase a 120 or 160 gigabyte system. In an effort to bolster the sales of PS3, Sony appears to have adopted a sales plan that is similar to the one used by Apple for their iPods. Unfortunately, despite these efforts, the future of the PlayStation 3 still remains unclear.

MIST: What is your background before you came to Penn State and got involved with SRA (Security Risk and Analysis)?

Professor Graham: Prior to teaching SRA I was a career Marine Corps officer. I retired in July of 2007 and my family and I relocated to State College. In seeking employment with Penn State, my first inclination was to look for a job in the Athletic Department. As a former squadron and airbase commander, I thought my experience in managing people and facilities could be put to use managing one of PSU’s many athletic venues. However, my background in strategic planning and my interest in National Security and terrorism studies in particular brought me to IST instead. The SRA major was a good fit to my background and interest. I believe that my military training was the perfect primer for teaching in the SRA major. My background in strategic and tactical planning, targeting and operations can be directly translated to the study of terrorism and terrorism networks.

MIST: What aspects of this industry (SRA) capture your interest and why?

PG: I believe the Global War of Terrorism (GWOT) will continue to threaten U.S. values and quality of life well into the future; the issues of terrorism will be inherited by our children and their children. I feel I have a responsibility to raise the awareness of the issues surrounding this problem in order to better prepare our youth to understand it and continue the fight; our Nation’s freedoms, values and way of life are at stake. To effectively engage GWOT we must understand what is at stake from both sides of the issue. To do this, we must consider the terrorist point of view as well as our own; what motivates them, and what threatens them. We must also understand the delicate balance between security and civil liberty.

MIST: What classes have you taught or currently teaching and how have you shaped the curriculum to incorporate hands-on activities and real life experiences?

PG: I am currently teaching SRA 211, “The Threat of Terrorism and Crime.” This course was designed to provide the first and second year student a broad exposure to the issues facing society with regard to crime and terrorism. I believe it to be a well thought out curriculum with enough exposure to key aspects of terrorism and crime to pique student interest and promote a more in depth study of this body of work. My efforts to infuse my experience into the course material include the insertion of what I call a “unifying thread,” critical thinking. By incorporating techniques and procedures that I have been exposed to during my military career such as the planning process, intelligence analytics and bias detection; I hope to unify the course material by re-enforcing various critical thinking methodologies. I hope to accomplish this through hands-on exercises and group interaction scenarios that directly support the course material as it is rolled out throughout the course. During my initial military flight training I was exposed to the learning process of “introduction- review- practice and evaluation,” which I adapted for use when I became a flight instructor and further adapted its use in other disciplines throughout the remainder of my career.

MIST: Are you involved in any research? If so, what and how can students get involved with such opportunities, if it interests them?

PG: I am a member of the Center for Net-Centric Cognition and Information Fusion or NC2IF. The center has been operating within IST since July 2007, but was formally designated in December of 2007. Dr. Dave Hall is the Center Director, brain trust and founder; I serve as his Center Deputy. The center has three major thrust areas, which are: Academics, Research and Demonstration. We are currently funded through various grants, including the Army Research Office, National Science Foundation, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Lockheed Martin and others. As our name suggests, we are interested in the issues surrounding data fusion, but really our research is much broader than that. Our research includes the harnessing of diverse types of data, filtering it, analyzing it and presenting it to decision-makers across a variety of problem sets and scales. The center is enhanced by the participation of many students who are conducting research, constructing model and are actively involved in designing and conducting experiments. Students who are interested in data fusion and applied research topics should contact either Dave or I to explore the possibilities.

MIST: Do you have any plans or ideas to help build the SRA major in the future to help prepare students for real life scenarios?

PG: I am currently developing a Red-Cell verses Blue-Cell scenario, which I plan to unveil during the second half of the semester. Students will be formed into Inter-agency teams and will utilize analytical methods learned in class in order to attempt to identify the criminal/terrorist elements, piece together the threat plot and make recommendations to mitigate or stop the terrorist event from happening. The scenario will draw on the subject matter introduced throughout the course (both criminal and terrorist), and draw on student experiences in problem identification, critical thinking and analysis to find and stop the criminal/terrorist enterprise.