esz001@cck.coventry.ac.uk (Will Overington) (05/21/91)
Will Overington Department of Electrical, Electronic and Systems Engineering, Coventry Polytechnic, Priory Street, Coventry CV1 5FB, England. Virtual Reality Course? I remember seeing an item in sci.virtual-worlds some time ago which mentioned an opportunity to see some video tapes about virtual reality at some educational establishment in the United States. (Was it West Coast? Was it California?) Anyway, the item made mention of people registered at the establishment as able to count credits for viewing the tapes. Well, I've been wondering if it is possible, and I know little about the American education system, for some sort of virtual reality course to be put together as a distance teaching package. This could involve video tapes and whatever else is available. In the case of video tapes there would need to be a conversion to British PAL 625 line television from American NTSC 525 line television, for those of us in the UK. This can be done, but it would be best if it is only done the once rather than having to be arranged by each end user. Naturally there would need to be assessments and, perhaps, examinations. Materials to be assessed could be put in the mail. Any examinations could be invigilated locally almost anywhere in the world. It would simply be a matter of arranging matters with a local college, who may not charge very much if the examination is taken when some other, local, examination is taking place. Is this in any way a practical proposition? Is there any organization out there that might like to run it? Is there anyone in the group who would like to enrol on such a course if it existed? +-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+ Will Overington Department of Electrical, Electronic and Systems Engineering, Coventry Polytechnic, Priory Street, Coventry CV1 5FB, England. +-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+ Coventry is a city in the centre of England, about a hundred miles from London, and about twenty miles north of Stratford- upon-Avon. +-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+ --
esz001@cck.coventry.ac.uk (Will Overington) (05/22/91)
22nd May 1991 Will Overington Department of Electrical, Electronic and Systems Engineering, Coventry Polytechnic, Priory Street, Coventry CV1 5FB, England. Teleutopias Readers may remember that I am theorising about the setting up of a company that would broadcast educational software. The idea is that all educational software submitted to the company, provided that it was to the stated format, would be accepted for broadcasting. A person submitting such software to the company would be issued with a token, a sort of trading stamp issued by the company. Collectors of the tokens could receive redemption merchandise in exchange for the tokens. This is intended to provide an exchange rate mechanism so that there is no need to artificially set quotas of how much software can be accepted from software authors. The redemption merchandise is intended to include educational materials and, if the law permits, shares in the company. ---- An interesting aspect of the law about trading stamps in England is that each stamp must be redeemable for cash and each stamp must have a cash value upon it, expressed in terms of the currency of the land. In practice, the value of the cash that one can obtain is less than the value of the redemption merchandise for which the stamps could otherwise be exchanged. For example, at the Mobil station where I regularly fill up my car they used to give Green Shield stamps, which had a cash value of .39p stated upon them. That is, 0.39 of a penny. (English currency is in pounds, with each pound divided into 100 pence). This seemed a strange amount to state, but it does work out that a collection book full of 32 pages of 32 stamps (=1024 stamps) has a cash redemption value of four pounds. The value of the redemption goods for such a book of stamps would be somewhat more, though not hugely greater. Until recently the Mobil station gave its own Mobil stamps with a cash value of .001p upon them. However, one could swap ten stamps for a cassette tape of music and so on. It looks as if the equivalent retail value of the redemption merchandise obtainable for each stamp is about 10p, namely ten thousand times the cash redemption value. Indeed, it is not only Mobil that has used the 0.001p cash value on trading stamps, as I was given a voucher at a BP (British Petroleum) station which also has .001p upon it. Nowadays, Mobil hereabouts gives one a credit card sized plastic card with a magnetic stripe upon it, upon which one point is stored for each 10p worth of petrol that is purchased. Petrol is 2 pounds 33 pence a gallon here these days, but at least the points on the card build up faster! :-) The scheme actually lets you go and get the redemption merchandise at a certain chain of shops, with 500 points worth a pound in redemption merchandise. The cash value of the points is, however, stated as .001p. So, here the redemption merchandise value is two hundred times the cash equivalent value. Each of the old 'hardcopy' stamps were given out for spending six pounds, but each of the new 'softcopy' points is given out for spending 10p. According to the law as I read it, it appears that an item is only a trading stamp that comes within the Trading Stamps Act 1964 if the company producing the stamps and providing the redemption merchandise is separate from the trader that actually rewards customers by giving the stamps. Thus, in some cases, where one sees a stamp with such a cash equivalent upon it in England, there is no legal requirement to state any sum at all. Since, however, it is an easy thing to do, it is reasonable to always do it, thereby avoiding needless problems. Of course, there may well be cases where a voucher is issued by, say, British Petroleum, and it superficially looks like it is BP giving the customer the voucher, because there are BP logos all about the petrol station, but, in fact, the petrol station is being operated by a separate business as a franchise. In designing trading stamps for my idea of the software broadcasting company, I realized that, although the cash value that could be stated might be small, nevertheless the total value of the money that would need to be set aside in case every stamp was exchanged for cash might become quite large for a young company if the idea took off. Accordingly, I began to think in terms of minuscule sized cash equivalent sums, such that the extreme case, of everybody in the world all sending in lots of software, would be covered! Now, of course, I am a realist and know that this just will not happen. I may well only get fifty or so authors, maybe more, maybe less. However, I gradually came to the choice of ten to the power of minus fifteen of one penny being a suitable figure. Various considerations came into this, chiefly because the SI units prefix for ten to the power of minus fifteen is femto and I like the sound of "one femtopenny" and because this would be represented by 1fp and, set in a flowing italic script, would look typographically attractive. This has led to other thoughts. For example, how many atoms of gold would 1fp buy? Imagine, in a virtual reality scenario, having a token dropped through the air towards your hand and it sparkle as a swirling galaxy of as many golden suns as this number of atoms of gold! The existence of a sort of token currency system at the bottom of such a vast financial well is interesting. For example, normal arithmetic can still apply, in that 2fp + 3fp = 5fp just as 2p + 3p = 5p in normal currency. It is only when transactions that involve some link between the tokens and real currency occur that the exchange rate needs to be involved. ---- It is part of the design for the company that all software authors will retain their own copyright and merely licence their work for being freely broadcast. I am a great believer in checks and balances in systems and feel that the always present possibility of withdrawal of the permission to broadcast by software authors will be a useful protection against the system being abused. Thus, the continued availability of software in the knowledge base will be conditional upon a consensus of agreement that the system is being used properly. ---- In my planned virtual reality of such a company, called the Telesoftware Institute, I envisage that, by leaving the foyer to the west, onto the west lawn and then turning to the north, one starts to follow a footpath which, if followed all the way, leads eventually to an arboretum, which contains, as well as other trees, a collection of deciduous conifers. Off to the north east, behind the main building is a formal garden. It is paved with pavements in the pattern of the rete of an astrolabe, with a specimen Davidia Involucrata tree at each star point. The rete of an astrolabe, in cyan upon a red background, being the symbol of telesoftware. Off to the west is a replica of a third world school. It is powered by a combination of batteries and a solar electricity system. There is a satellite reception dish which points up in a vaguely southerly direction. Inside the school building, the classroom is set out so as to provide a working demonstration of how telesoftware could be used for education in the developing world. +-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+ Will Overington Department of Electrical, Electronic and Systems Engineering, Coventry Polytechnic, Priory Street, Coventry CV1 5FB, England. +-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+ Virtual reality might be a substitute for the real thing, or it may just help it happen! +-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+ --
Will Overington <esz001@cck.coventry.ac.uk> (05/22/91)
Readers may remember that I am theorising about the setting up of a company that would broadcast educational software. The idea is that all educational software submitted to the company, provided that it was to the stated format, would be accepted for broadcasting. A person submitting such software to the company would be issued with a token, a sort of trading stamp issued by the company. Collectors of the tokens could receive redemption merchandise in exchange for the tokens. This is intended to provide an exchange rate mechanism so that there is no need to artificially set quotas of how much software can be accepted from software authors. The redemption merchandise is intended to include educational materials and, if the law permits, shares in the company. ---- An interesting aspect of the law about trading stamps in England is that each stamp must be redeemable for cash and each stamp must have a cash value upon it, expressed in terms of the currency of the land. In practice, the value of the cash that one can obtain is less than the value of the redemption merchandise for which the stamps could otherwise be exchanged. For example, at the Mobil station where I regularly fill up my car they used to give Green Shield stamps, which had a cash value of .39p stated upon them. That is, 0.39 of a penny. (English currency is in pounds, with each pound divided into 100 pence). This seemed a strange amount to state, but it does work out that a collection book full of 32 pages of 32 stamps (=1024 stamps) has a cash redemption value of four pounds. The value of the redemption goods for such a book of stamps would be somewhat more, though not hugely greater. Until recently the Mobil station gave its own Mobil stamps with a cash value of .001p upon them. However, one could swap ten stamps for a cassette tape of music and so on. It looks as if the equivalent retail value of the redemption merchandise obtainable for each stamp is about 10p, namely ten thousand times the cash redemption value. Indeed, it is not only Mobil that has used the 0.001p cash value on trading stamps, as I was given a voucher at a BP (British Petroleum) station which also has .001p upon it. Nowadays, Mobil hereabouts gives one a credit card sized plastic card with a magnetic stripe upon it, upon which one point is stored for each 10p worth of petrol that is purchased. Petrol is 2 pounds 33 pence a gallon here these days, but at least the points on the card build up faster! :-) The scheme actually lets you go and get the redemption merchandise at a certain chain of shops, with 500 points worth a pound in redemption merchandise. The cash value of the points is, however, stated as .001p. So, here the redemption merchandise value is two hundred times the cash equivalent value. Each of the old 'hardcopy' stamps were given out for spending six pounds, but each of the new 'softcopy' points is given out for spending 10p. According to the law as I read it, it appears that an item is only a trading stamp that comes within the Trading Stamps Act 1964 if the company producing the stamps and providing the redemption merchandise is separate from the trader that actually rewards customers by giving the stamps. Thus, in some cases, where one sees a stamp with such a cash equivalent upon it in England, there is no legal requirement to state any sum at all. Since, however, it is an easy thing to do, it is reasonable to always do it, thereby avoiding needless problems. Of course, there may well be cases where a voucher is issued by, say, British Petroleum, and it superficially looks like it is BP giving the customer the voucher, because there are BP logos all about the petrol station, but, in fact, the petrol station is being operated by a separate business as a franchise. In designing trading stamps for my idea of the software broadcasting company, I realized that, although the cash value that could be stated might be small, nevertheless the total value of the money that would need to be set aside in case every stamp was exchanged for cash might become quite large for a young company if the idea took off. Accordingly, I began to think in terms of minuscule sized cash equivalent sums, such that the extreme case, of everybody in the world all sending in lots of software, would be covered! Now, of course, I am a realist and know that this just will not happen. I may well only get fifty or so authors, maybe more, maybe less. However, I gradually came to the choice of ten to the power of minus fifteen of one penny being a suitable figure. Various considerations came into this, chiefly because the SI units prefix for ten to the power of minus fifteen is femto and I like the sound of "one femtopenny" and because this would be represented by 1fp and, set in a flowing italic script, would look typographically attractive. This has led to other thoughts. For example, how many atoms of gold would 1fp buy? Imagine, in a virtual reality scenario, having a token dropped through the air towards your hand and it sparkle as a swirling galaxy of as many golden suns as this number of atoms of gold! The existence of a sort of token currency system at the bottom of such a vast financial well is interesting. For example, normal arithmetic can still apply, in that 2fp + 3fp = 5fp just as 2p + 3p = 5p in normal currency. It is only when transactions that involve some link between the tokens and real currency occur that the exchange rate needs to be involved. ---- It is part of the design for the company that all software authors will retain their own copyright and merely licence their work for being freely broadcast. I am a great believer in checks and balances in systems and feel that the always present possibility of withdrawal of the permission to broadcast by software authors will be a useful protection against the system being abused. Thus, the continued availability of software in the knowledge base will be conditional upon a consensus of agreement that the system is being used properly. ---- In my planned virtual reality of such a company, called the Telesoftware Institute, I envisage that, by leaving the foyer to the west, onto the west lawn and then turning to the north, one starts to follow a footpath which, if followed all the way, leads eventually to an arboretum, which contains, as well as other trees, a collection of deciduous conifers. Off to the north east, behind the main building is a formal garden. It is paved with pavements in the pattern of the rete of an astrolabe, with a specimen Davidia Involucrata tree at each star point. The rete of an astrolabe, in cyan upon a red background, being the symbol of telesoftware. Off to the west is a replica of a third world school. It is powered by a combination of batteries and a solar electricity system. There is a satellite reception dish which points up in a vaguely southerly direction. Inside the school building, the classroom is set out so as to provide a working demonstration of how telesoftware could be used for education in the developing world. +-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+ Will Overington Department of Electrical, Electronic and Systems Engineering, Coventry Polytechnic, Priory Street, Coventry CV1 5FB, England. +-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+ Virtual reality might be a substitute for the real thing, or it may just help it happen! +-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+
kilian@sequoia.cray.com (Alan Kilian) (05/24/91)
Will Overington asks: > This has led to other thoughts. For example, how many atoms of > gold would 1fp buy? Imagine, in a virtual reality scenario, > having a token dropped through the air towards your hand and it > sparkle as a swirling galaxy of as many golden suns as this > number of atoms of gold! I liked this problem so I thought I would have a go at it. Given: Gold costs $500.00 US an ounce (Or there abouts) Given: An ounce is 29 grams (Or there abouts) Therefore: gold costs $17 US per gram Given: 1 mole of gold weighs 197 grams. This is 6x10^23 atoms of gold. Therefore: 1 gram is 3x10^21 atoms of gold. Given: 1fp (FemtoPennyUS) is 1x10^-15 penny Therefore: 1fp buys 6x10^-16 grams of gold Therefore: 6x10^-16 grams of gold at 6x10^23 atoms per gram is 1.8x10^7 atoms Cool 18 million atoms of gold. Now this is an _Order-of-magnitude_ solution so please don't pick on the price of gold or the number of grams in a troy ounce unless I am off by enough to cause my answer to be wrong by more than an order of magnitude. -Alan Kilian kilian@cray.com 612.683.5499 Cray Research, Inc. | If god had meant us to use the metric system 655 F Lone Oak Drive | he would have given us ten finger and ten Eagan MN, 55121 | toes. The author of _Light Elements_