Game Programmer: Engineer Or Artist?
Tim Innes & Jason Morales , S2 Games
02/26/2004
Even before computers, people dreamed of alternate worlds. While films like The Matrix are still purely fictional speculation, we're hard at work trying to improve thebelievability of our simulations. While engineers created the first games alone, overtime art assets have become the largest portion of development. However, as the laws and theories of physics, chemistry and even biology become ever more important factors in the presentation of games, it seems that engineers are once again becoming the artists.
Dot-Com War Stories: How (And How Not To) Run A Webstudio
Liz Warner, MadFish, San Francisco
03/04/2004
Liz Warner co-owned and managed a web studio during the dot-com boom and bust. Her presentation will include: Tips on self-employment for techies. How to thrive (orat least survive) in any economy. Client management for programmers. Hiring & firingcontractors, and choosing partners. The smartest and stupidest things I did as aconsultant, and why they're often the same.
Why Zombies Are Impossible
Teed Rockwell, Sonoma State University Philosophy Department
03/11/2004
Many Philosophers claim that there is no contradiction in the idea of a Philosopher's Zombie, i.e., a being which is physically identical to a conscious human, but which is not actually conscious. This claim rests on the widely held assumption that we have a direct awareness of our subjective, private experiences. But this assumption is false, because the idea of direct awareness is incoherent. Because there is no direct awareness of subjective experiences, Philosopher's Zombies are revealed to be as self-contradictory as Zagnets (i.e. objects which behave like magnets, but which have no inner "magnetizmo".) Does this mean that philosophers cannot be spoofed?
It Perspective On Systems Analysis In A Crm Implementation
Dawn Jenner, DataFlow Computer Resource Management, Santa Rosa
03/18/2004
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is fast becoming the preferred way businesses interact with their clients and customers. Yet, statistics show that mostCRM ventures fail, costing millions in lost revenue. Key to effective CRMimplementation is a systems analysis process that clearly focuses on the company's goals and client needs, while identifying the company's culture and resources, andaccurately matching the appropriate technology with the users' abilities.
Multifingered Grasping: From Grasp Reflexes To Context-Dependent Strategies
Jefferson Coelho, Sonoma State University Computer and Engineering Science Graduate Program & Agilent, Santa Rosa
03/25/2004
Grasping plays an important role in human cognitive development, helping infantsdevelop primitive problem solving strategies and aiding the onset of perceptual categorization. Grasp controllers can be suitable for implementation on robotic devices. Grasp controllers are initially defined as simple grasp primitives, the first step in the bootstrap procedure leading to context-dependent strategies. Physical objects can be autonomously defined by the robot, based on the history of grasp interactions. Theresulting grasp controller is being implemented in Nasa's robonaut, a robotic helper for astronauts.