May 18th, 2012
NEW YORK (AP) — President Barack Obama‘s re-election campaign didn’t produce a video publicizing his endorsement of gay marriage. But Obama’s announcement last week has resulted in a record number of searches on YouTube for gay marriage and a rush of the site’s users uploading videos on the subject. Gay marriage was also the most popular topic on YouTube’s news and politics category this week.
Gay rights issues have a history of sparking online viral videos. University of Iowa student Zach Wahls‘ plea for marriage rights for his lesbian parents was YouTube’s most-watched political video of 2011. It was followed closely by “Strong,” an ad from Texas Gov. Rick Perry‘s since-abandoned bid for the Republican presidential nomination, in which Perry laments the fact that “gays can serve openly in the military.” The Perry video drew more than 760,000 “dislikes” on YouTube and spun off numerous parody videos.
Obama’s announcement led to more videos uploaded on YouTube with the key words “gay marriage” than previously. The videos so far have drawn more than 3 million views and 100,000 comments.
The first major surge of interest in videos related to gay marriage came in 2009, when Miss USA contestant Carrie Prejean told a pageant judge on national television that she believed marriage should be between a man and a woman. Prejean said publicity around her answer cost her the Miss USA title.
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May 18th, 2012
NEW YORK – President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign didn’t produce a video publicizing his endorsement of gay marriage. But Obama’s announcement last week has resulted in a record number of searches on YouTube for gay marriage and a rush of the site’s users uploading videos on the subject. Gay marriage was also the most popular topic on YouTube’s news and politics category this week.
Gay rights issues have a history of sparking online viral videos. University of Iowa student Zach Wahls’ plea for marriage rights for his lesbian parents was YouTube’s most-watched political video of 2011. It was followed closely by “Strong,” an ad from Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s since-abandoned bid for the Republican presidential nomination, in which Perry laments the fact that “gays can serve openly in the military.” The Perry video drew more than 760,000 “dislikes” on YouTube and spun off numerous parody videos.
Obama’s announcement led to more videos uploaded on YouTube with the key words “gay marriage” than previously. The videos so far have drawn more than 3 million views and 100,000 comments.
The first major surge of interest in videos related to gay marriage came in 2009, when Miss USA contestant Carrie Prejean told a pageant judge on national television that she believed marriage should be between a man and a woman. Prejean said publicity around her answer cost her the Miss USA title.
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May 16th, 2012
PrimePay releases new videos which demonstrate the power of integrating HR, payroll and benefits administration into one online solution… eliminating significant challenges human resource professionals face every day.
West Chester, PA (PRWEB) May 16, 2012
PrimePay Inc., a leading nationwide provider of payroll, tax, HR and benefit services, recently released three online videos for PrimePay HR3, a web-based human resource management system (HRMS) which integrates HR, payroll and benefits administration. These videos focus on three specific human resource needs: single-entry HR management system, online benefit enrollment and the integration of HR and benefits data with payroll.
Businesses nationwide face a number of significant HR challenges… from staying compliant with government regulations and dealing with time consuming administrative tasks… to being overloaded with benefit enrollment paperwork and redundant manual data entry. Many companies struggle with entering HR, benefits and payroll data into multiple systems. When human resource processes are inefficient, mistakes will happen. The key to streamlining processes and improving data accuracy is to integrate HR, payroll and benefits information into one online solution.
Each of the three PrimePay videos addresses a particular human resource pain point:
1. Single-Entry HR Management System
HR professionals are traditionally overloaded with paperwork and storage for employee personnel files is a constant burden. This 5-minute video illustrates how a web-based HR & benefits administration system provides an easily accessible system for retaining historical data related to employee demographics, employment, compensation, benefits and more. Watch the PrimePay videos on PrimePay’s YouTube™ Channel.
2. Online Benefit Enrollment
Companies can realize an 80% cost savings when employees enroll in benefits online versus using a paper-based enrollment process. In this 6-minute video, PrimePay demonstrates step-by-step how an HR management system streamlines the benefit enrollment process, provides a paperless enrollment solution and increases ROI. HR3 allows employees to compare plan choices, calculate plan costs, add dependents and designate beneficiaries. Watch the PrimePay HR3 videos using Adobe® Flash®.
3. Integrating HR & Benefits with Payroll
The trend for many organizations is to have HR and payroll speak to each other to avoid manual data entry into different systems. This 5-minute video walks HR professionals through a series of employment events such as salary increases and employee changes to benefit enrollment to demonstrate how the communication between HR and payroll can be automated… improving data accuracy and increasing efficiencies. Watch the PrimePay HR3 videos using Windows Media® Player.
To learn more about how to streamline HR and benefit processes and improve data accuracy using PrimePay HR3, please contact PrimePay, visit their website at http://www.primepay.com or call (877) 446-9729.
About PrimePay
PrimePay, Inc. specializes in providing payroll, tax, HR and benefit services for small and medium sized businesses. Recognized nationally, PrimePay offers full service payroll as well as options for web payroll entry and paperless payroll for an eco-friendly solution. From flexible spending accounts and retirement plans to workers’ comp insurance and time and attendance solutions, PrimePay strives to help clients increase profitability and improve efficiencies. PrimePay’s area of expertise with franchise payroll services has resulted in a number of national franchise accounts and affinity marketing programs for well known organizations. PrimePay was founded in 1986 and has more than 35 offices nationwide. Find them at http://www.primepay.com.
Nancy Mullin
PrimePay
(610) 296-4500
Email Information
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May 16th, 2012
SAN FRANCISCO, May 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — blinkx, the world’s largest and most advanced video search engine, today announced that a blinkx app is now available on Sony Internet-enabled home entertainment devices. Consumers can now watch high quality videos from blinkx’s extensive index of professionally produced content on a variety of customized channels.
“Sony is a premier brand in consumer electronics, and has helped re-define the way we bring high quality entertainment into our homes,” said Suranga Chandratillake, CEO, blinkx. “We’re thrilled to offer the blinkx app, which combines our robust search technology with our massive index of professionally produced video to Sony customers.”
The blinkx app for Sony gives customers immediate access to blinkx’s index of premium content through 18 distinct and engaging video channels, including:
- Sports: an action-packed channel showcasing the latest highlights, interviews and game updates from the world of sports
- News: a breaking news channel featuring top stories from around the world
- Popular: an editorialized roundup of the most popular videos from across the Web, including the latest shocking news from Hollywood and jaw-dropping human feats
- Fun: a riveting playlist of hilarious bloopers, amazing stunts, ridiculous pranks and cute animals
The blinkx app is available on Sony Internet-enabled devices including BRAVIA® TVs, Blu-ray Disc™ and streaming media players, and home theater systems.
As the pioneer in video search technology, blinkx has built a reputation as the smartest way to find rich media on the Web. The company has signed more than 720 partners and indexed over 35 million hours of video and audio content to date. blinkx has also opened its TV API to provide partners in the fast-growing Connected TV ecosystem—from box makers and TV manufacturers, to app developers and game consoles—access to blinkx’s video index.
About blinkx
blinkx plc (BLNX.L) is the world’s largest and most advanced video search engine. Today, blinkx has indexed more than 35 million hours of audio, video, viral and TV content, and made it fully searchable and available on demand. blinkx’s founders set out to solve a significant challenge – as TV and user-generated content on the Web explode, keyword-based search technologies only scratch the surface. blinkx’s patented search technologies listen to – and even see – the Web, helping users enjoy a breadth and accuracy of search results not available elsewhere. In addition, blinkx powers the video search for many of the world’s most frequented sites. blinkx is based in San Francisco and London. More information is available at www.blinkx.com.
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May 14th, 2012
http://YouTubeFreeDownloader.com has just released a new multi-connection free YouTube downloader and MP3 converter that is breaking download speed records. WARNING: This new multi-connection technology may give other Internet software download envy.
San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) May 14, 2012
Question: How does the new YouTube download technology work and why is it so much faster? Can you tell users what’s the secret to its speed?
Answer: Rather than just using one download connection to download a video, use ten.
YouTubeFreeDownloader.com opens (TEN) separate download connections/workers that are each assigned to a different part of the video to download. So each of the ten workers download a different part of the video at the same time.
This takes advantage of YouTube’s initial speed burst that YouTube sends out at the beginning of the watch request. This results in download speeds ten times faster, in excess of 5MB/sec. Ten download threads will most likely max out most users broadband pipes. In some tests, with excellent broadband, testers have actually exceeded 10 megabytes per second with full videos being downloaded in less than five seconds.
The technical name for the multi-connection streaming technology is known as pseudo video streaming. Pseudo video streaming is where a video player makes a watch request to start a video streaming from a specified section of a video. To learn more about pseudo video streaming please visit:
http://www.longtailvideo.com/support/jw-player/jw-player-for-flash-v5/12534/video-delivery-http-pseudo-streaming
YouTube Free Downloader is more than just a fast downloader; it also allows users to download 1080p and 720p HD videos and allows users to convert them to other file formats, such as: MP4, MP3, M4A, AIFF, FLAC, WAV, WMA, WMV, MOV, MPEG, M4V, FLV, AVI, Plus iPad, iPhone, PSP, files, etc.
YouTube Free Downloader is a totally free video ripping application to common video formats and MP3. YouTube Free Downloader will help you download videos, extract lossless audio, convert online videos to MP4, MP3, M4A, AIFF, FLAC, WAV, WMA, WMV, MOV, MPEG, M4V, FLV, AVI, Plus iPad, iPhone, PSP, etc. With YouTube Free Downloader, is all users need to do is paste a video link, choose the quality, and press “Download.” The freeware allows running several downloads simultaneously and at the highest speed possible due to the multithreading technology.
The software is absolutely free, without any feature or time limitations.
This free software works on Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7.
If you would like to test out a free copy please visit our website. >> http://youtubefreedownloader.com/
Patrick Shea
416-981-3135
Email Information
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May 14th, 2012
By Tim Hanrahan
Every week, Washington Wire provides a rundown of the top political ads, based on data fromVisible Measures.
A Mitt Romney campaign ad broke into the top five most-watched online political spots, but President Barack Obama‘s videos continued to dominate the top of the charts, with the economy featuring prominently in their pitches.
At the top of the chart for the week ended Sunday was the Obama campaign’s “Go” ad. The spotwas rolled out a week agofollowingthe official launch of Mr. Obamas re-election bid, and aims to remind voters of how deep a slump the country was suffering in 2008, before Mr. Obama took over.
The Romney campaign’s new “Silence” ad juxtaposes statements by Mr. Obama with recent weak employment news, and TV commentators’ remarks — in a move to make the case that the “Obama economy” isn’t working for a lot of Americans who can’t find a job or who have stopped looking.
Out of the top 10, Mr. Obama’s campaign has five, Mr. Romney’s camp has one, and conservative super PACs have three spots. (The 10th item was Texas Gov. Rick Perry‘s “Strong” campaign — and all the spinoffs it engendered — which climbed back into the chart this week.)
The entire top 10 is below.
Heres the full chart. Follow Tim Hanrahan on Twitter @TimJHanrahan
*Campaigns marked New are new to the top 10, but may not be new ads.
Visible Measures, based in Boston, is a provider of analytics and advertising services for social video. The companys True Reach metric combines the performance of the original videos uploaded by politicians and political groups to sites such as YouTube and the copies and derivatives uploaded by audiences.
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May 12th, 2012
There are no words strong enough to describe the horror captured in the images collected by child abuser Stephen John Laing.
There is also no way to prevent the 28-year-old, upon his release from jail, soliciting more material to trade in the murky online world he’s created from inside his West Auckland home.
“He’s had all the help in the world that’s available to him and this is still happening,” Judge Claire Ryan said at a court hearing a few days ago.
She sent the IT graduate to jail for a further five years. It was his fourth conviction.
Laing belongs to a small, but extremely harmful group of recidivist sex offenders who view, trade or create images of child abuse. Caught in September and charged with supplying objectionable material while on parole, Laing is considered the “worst” of his kind in New Zealand, not only for his continued, unrepentant offending but because of the type of material he favours.
In Laing’s case, “objectionable” means pictures of adults raping babies, and toddlers being forced to perform sexual acts on grown men. His latest bout of offending was picked up by a United States sheriff posing as a paedophile online, who managed to download 24 images from Laing and who then alerted New Zealand authorities.
Although prevented by parole conditions from owning a computer or accessing the internet, authorities found Laing used a laptop from his home to tap into a neighbour’s wireless connection, trading on a file-sharing website under the name “baby rape”.
He shared files, including a video folder with 271 video clips and image folders labelled “baby and toddler” and “5 to 10″.
The image folders contained 6000 image files depicting sexual abuse.
While he might be the worst, Laing is by no means alone in his obsession.
Figures from the Internal Affairs Department, which works with Customs and Police to prosecute these offenders, show that 14 men were prosecuted under the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act this year. Another 30 cases are pending.
It is unknown how many of those men were repeat offenders, but recent court records show there is a core group for whom prosecution has not yet been a deterrent. Aaron Potter, for example, was sentenced in the North Shore District Court earlier this year to 25 years’ jail after pleading guilty to 40 charges of possessing objectionable material. Potter continued to distribute images even though he knew he was being investigated.
Bryce William Butler, 44, was given nine months’ home detention in Hamilton District Court in February after previously pleading guilty to 16 charges of possessing objectionable material. The former Te Kuiti counsellor was jailed previously, in 2002, for twice indecently assaulting a 9-year-old girl and months earlier was also in trouble for possessing objectionable material.
Auckland University’s expert in clinical and forensic psychology, Ian Lambie, who recently studied a group of offenders like Laing, Potter and Butler, said viewing the abuse images was highly addictive and highly compulsive, making it extremely difficult for the perpetrators to stop.
“Also, what some internet offenders believe is that because there’s no hands-on offending they rationalise there’s no victim,” Lambie said. “They live in a fantasy world.”
To stop reoffending, any treatment had to deal with the addiction but also the underlying issues – like loneliness, anxiety and depression, Lambie said. There are treatment programmes in New Zealand for online offenders – some will be admitted into sex offender programmes run at prisons, while others can complete community-based treatment such as that offered by Safe, in Auckland.
Safe Network head Jacqui Dillon said it had a specific programme for online deviants, based on cognitive behaviour therapy. A four-year follow-up study showed that 5 per cent of those in the programme reoffended, which Dillon says is good evidence to support community-based programmes, and the importance of rehabilitation as a tool.
“There is no evidence to support that keeping someone incarcerated changes their behaviour,” Dillon said.
In Laing’s case, however, the treatment failed. Laing attended the Safe programme, on direction from the courts, but was kicked out for continuing to view porn.
The national director of child protection agency ECPAT, Alan Bell, believes Laing’s refusal to change is enough to justify an indefinite sentence.
Bell believes the civil detention centre proposed to hold the country’s worst violent offenders should also be available for online offenders.
“If a person is determined not to rehabilitate it’s not going to succeed. Provision needs to be made for these people to be isolated from society, indefinitely,” he said.
Justice Minister Judith Collins said indefinite punishment for online offenders was not an option.
While she planned to double sentences for possessing objectionable material from five years to 10, civil detention centres were only for the very worst sexual and violent offenders, Collins said.
Stephen John Laing will be eligible for parole in 2015.
THE INVESTIGATORS
The investigators who trawl through thousands of disturbing images depicting child abuse have to complete counselling sessions every three months to help deal with what they’ve seen. Customs has also appointed only two designated staff to complete the task after it found some workers were too badly affected by the pictures. Investigating officers Tim Houston and Dave Southwell both worked on the Laing case, and analysed the images found in his possession. What they look at is disturbing, disgusting and horrifying. A book of sanitised images used to demonstrate what they see every day shows acts perpetrated on children that would make most people feel physically sick. However, the investigators say it’s important to find the children in the photos and prevent further abuse. If they can find the victims, it also helps in creating victim impact statements that are placed before a judge. “Our priority is to save real victims. Whether they’re here or overseas, that’s why we do it,” Houston said.Detective Senior Sergeant John Michael, the head of the police online child protection team OCEANZ, said there were some significant trends the agencies were watching in New Zealand, such as an increase in sadistic abuse and a growing number of pictures of babies. Public awareness of the practice was growing, although there was still an issue with the use of the word “pornography”, he said. The taskforce said the term “porn” indicated legitimacy and compliance on behalf of the victim, therefore legality on the part of the offender. Michael said in reality, each photo was an image of a crime scene and should be treated as such. Customs manager of investigations Shane Panettiere said they hoped to stamp out the term and replace it with phrases like “images of child sexual abuse”. “If New Zealand knew what we were talking about I think they would be absolutely horrified. There is no way they would call it pornography,” he said
– © Fairfax NZ News
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May 12th, 2012
There is no way to prevent a 28-year-old child abuser
from soliciting more images of child abuse to trade in
the murky online world when he is released from jail, a judge
says.
Caught in September and charged with supplying objectionable
material while on parole, Stephen John Laing is considered the
“worst” of his kind in New Zealand, not only for his continued,
unrepentant offending but because of the type of material he
favours.
Judge Claire Ryan said at a court hearing that Laing has “had
all the help in the world that’s available to him and this is still
happening”.
She sent the IT graduate to jail for a further five years. It
was his fourth conviction.
Laing belongs to a small, but extremely harmful group of
recidivist sex offenders who view, trade or create images of child
abuse.
In Laing’s case, “objectionable” means pictures of adults raping
babies, and toddlers being forced to perform sexual acts on grown
men.
His latest bout of offending was picked up by a United States
sheriff posing as a paedophile online, who managed to download 24
images from Laing and who then alerted New Zealand authorities.
Although prevented by parole conditions from owning a computer
or accessing the internet, authorities found Laing used a laptop
from his home to tap into a neighbour’s wireless connection,
trading on a file-sharing website under the name “baby rape”.
He shared files, including a video folder with 271 video clips
and image folders labelled “baby and toddler” and “5 to 10″.
The image folders contained 6000 image files depicting sexual
abuse.
While he might be the worst, Laing is by no means alone in his
obsession.
Figures from the Internal Affairs Department, which works with
Customs and Police to prosecute these offenders, show that 14 men
were prosecuted under the Films, Videos, and Publications
Classification Act this year. Another 30 cases are pending.
Repeat offenders
It is unknown how many of those men were repeat offenders, but
recent court records show there is a core group for whom
prosecution has not yet been a deterrent.
Aaron Potter, for example, was sentenced in the North Shore
District Court earlier this year to 25 years’ jail after pleading
guilty to 40 charges of possessing objectionable material. Potter
continued to distribute images even though he knew he was being
investigated.
Bryce William Butler, 44, was given nine months’ home detention
in Hamilton District Court in February after previously pleading
guilty to 16 charges of possessing objectionable material.
The former Te Kuiti counsellor was jailed previously, in 2002,
for twice indecently assaulting a 9-year-old girl and months
earlier was also in trouble for possessing objectionable
material.
Auckland University’s expert in clinical and forensic
psychology, Ian Lambie, who recently studied a group of offenders
like Laing, Potter and Butler, said viewing the abuse images was
highly addictive and highly compulsive, making it extremely
difficult for the perpetrators to stop.
“Also, what some internet offenders believe is that because
there’s no hands-on offending they rationalise there’s no victim,”
Lambie said. “They live in a fantasy world.”
To stop reoffending, any treatment had to deal with the
addiction but also the underlying issues – like loneliness, anxiety
and depression, Lambie said. There are treatment programmes in New
Zealand for online offenders – some will be admitted into sex
offender programmes run at prisons, while others can complete
community-based treatment such as that offered by Safe, in
Auckland.
Safe Network head Jacqui Dillon said it had a specific programme
for online deviants, based on cognitive behaviour therapy. A
four-year follow-up study showed that 5% of those in the programme
reoffended, which Dillon says is good evidence to support
community-based programmes, and the importance of rehabilitation as
a tool.
“There is no evidence to support that keeping someone
incarcerated changes their behaviour,” Dillon said.
In Laing’s case, however, the treatment failed. Laing attended
the Safe programme, on direction from the courts, but was kicked
out for continuing to view porn.
The national director of child protection agency ECPAT, Alan
Bell, believes Laing’s refusal to change is enough to justify an
indefinite sentence.
Bell believes the civil detention centre proposed to hold the
country’s worst violent offenders should also be available for
online offenders.
“If a person is determined not to rehabilitate it’s not going to
succeed. Provision needs to be made for these people to be isolated
from society, indefinitely,” he said.
Justice Minister Judith Collins said indefinite punishment for
online offenders was not an option.
While she planned to double sentences for possessing
objectionable material from five years to 10, civil detention
centres were only for the very worst sexual and violent offenders,
Collins said.
Stephen John Laing will be eligible for parole in 2015.
The investigators who trawl through thousands of disturbing
images depicting child abuse have to complete counselling sessions
every three months to help deal with what they have seen.
Latest NZ News Video
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May 10th, 2012
Will free online classes offered by universities such as Harvard and Stanford contribute to a Super Flynn Effect?
(Shamus Ian Fatzinger)
Last fall, Stanford began offering online courses taught by the likes of Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig. Last month, ideas conference TED announced that it was unlocking its TED Talks videos and encouraging educators to mash them up with YouTube videos as part of their TED-ed initiative. Last week, Harvard and MIT unveiled edX: the chance to study courses from two of the nation’s most prestigious universities via the Internet. So, here’s the question: Are we at the start of a brave new era of higher education and rapidly accelerating intelligence?
Even before these wildly innovative offerings — what some have referred to as the “Ivy League Spring” — educators had already noticed one of the most interesting long-term trends in recent history — a substantial and long-term increase in IQ scores in nearly every part of the world. Through some as of yet unexplained factor (smaller families? better nutrition?) people around the world have been getting smarter. And it’s not just the world’s smartest who are getting smarter — it’s actually the case that the intelligence gains are concentrated at the lower end of the intelligence distribution. Which is to say, even the “Dummies” are getting smarter. Researchers have dubbed this the Flynn Effect.
If we are already in the midst of a long-term, global trend towards superior intelligence, is it possible that we could be ready to experience , for lack of a better term, a Super Flynn Effect brought on by online education?
Not only are people getting smarter, but now they are also all taking courses from Ivy League professors and learning about artificial intelligence from the brightest minds in Silicon Valley. Thanks to the Internet, anybody in the world can have access to information formerly provided only to a very tiny elite.
That’s certainly cause for optimism. The spotlight is currently on higher education, with discussion and debate about the spiraling costs and concerns about the future burdens of student loans. Now, it looks like the nation’s top universities are willing to experiment with new, highly distributed models for delivering the educational experience. And this goes beyond providing free information. Some schools are actually considering ways to give certificates or other forms of credit for finishing these courses. At some point, will what you do at home in your pajamas on your laptop in Mumbai, Rio or Moscow be just as valuable as what you might do in Cambridge, New Haven, Princeton or Palo Alto?
Of course, there’s no sure thing when it comes to online education. We’ve been hearing about the promise of online education and distance learning for years. The promise has almost always come up short in the past, with some skeptics arguing that an online education will never be a match for a hands-on, real-world learning environment. To top it off, there are even skeptics of the Flynn Effect, who see this trend towards greater global intelligence as nothing more than greater familiarity with test taking.
Yet, it’s certainly heartening to believe in a Super Flynn Effect — to believe in the entire world getting smarter at the same time. Given all of the other unique online learning tools out there — most notably Khan Academy — it certainly appears as if the world of online education is one of the richest, most innovative fields out there these days. The current generation may not be richer than their parents, but they will almost certainly be smarter.
Dominic Basulto is a digital thinker at Bond Strategy and Influence (formerly called Electric Artists) in New York. Prior to Bond Strategy and Influence, he was the editor of Fortune’s Business Innovation Insider and a founding member of Corante.com, one of the Web’s first blog media companies. He also shares his thoughts on innovation on the Big Think Endless Innovation blog and is working on a new book on innovation called “Endless Innovation, Most Beautiful and Most Wonderful.”
Read more news and ideas on Innovations:
Is your technology biased?
Facebook gets its app store on
The next generation of SWAG
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May 10th, 2012
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Continuing his Tales from the GDC Vault series, GDC historian Jason Scott has digitized and uploaded five notable videos from the 1998 Computer Game Developers Conference, all of which are available online for the first time.
These classic CGDC videos continue to provide us a look back at some of the most challenging issues our industry faced almost 15 years ago. The archives which will be further added to over the next few months give us another chance to both learn from our past and even apply classic game development lessons to today’s ever-changing market.
These videos, which feature renowned industry figures such as EA’s Richard Hilleman (pictured), Shiny Entertainment founder Dave Perry, and Maxis engineer Paul Pedrian, join a handful of other GDC Vault lectures from 1998. Join us now as we look back at more exciting lectures and presentations from another classic Computer Game Developers Conference:
- Current Electronic Arts chief creative officer Richard Hilleman keynotes the 1998 conference with “Herding Cats: How to Build, Manage and Sustain Successful Teams.” The EA veteran expresses that leadership is not enough to make good teams work for product development, but that it is part of a bigger system, discussing who the customers are and how to reach them, leadership characteristics that work for him, and how to build teams effective in the long-term, while adhering to holistic lessons “learned from Mom.” He even encourages hiring and nurturing his own replacements, stating that doing so “will set you free.” [GDC Vault free video]
- Interestingly, Michael “SAXS” Persson and David Perry (who both worked at Earthworm Jim and MDK studio Shiny Entertainment) walk the crowd through their scalable real-time deformation and tessellation engine in the lecture, “Messiah: What You May or May Not Believe.” Persson walks through rendering several Messiah characters, discussing the sophisticated for the time tools and 3D engine used in creating the noted “body swapping” game. [GDC Vault free video.]
- Elsewhere, Maxis software engineer Paul Pedrian (SimCity 3000) expresses that the C++ language has evolved to become “perfectly viable for games” in his lecture, “High Performance Game Programming in C++.” Pedrian blazes through 60 slides in 60 minutes, covering dozens of programming topics, while analyzing related code and showing their benchmark results. [GDC Vault free video]
- Former Namco senior developer Gilbert Colgate shares heaps of mathematics and programming techniques in his lecture, In “Collision Detection in Pac-Man Ghost Zone: Collision Techniques in a 3D Environment for Man and Camera.” Recalling his experience with the unreleased PlayStation game, Colgate explains an alternative to programming true physics. These physics rules, he says, aptly put the “fib” in what he calls Fibonacci physics, which helps programming of 3D character actions. [GDC Vault free video]
- Finally, co-creator of the Bentley-Ottmann algorithm and 2004 Dr. Dobbs Excellence in Programming award recipient, Jon Bentley of Bell Labs argues that speed is best built in from the beginning of a project in his lecture, “Blazing Fast Code.” Suitable for those who are familiar with the C programming language, Bentley touches on several performance techniques from micro case studies that lead to huge speed increases. [GDC Vault free video]
These free videos join a host of other paid and free lectures available on GDC Vault, which is undertaking a major effort to digitize its back catalog of material for modern audiences for free. Paid subscriptions to thousands of newer GDC lectures are also available, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription Beta via a GDC Vault inquiry form.
Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company. More information on this option is available via an online demonstration, and interested parties can send an email to Gillian Crowley. In addition, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault admins.
Be sure to keep an eye on GDC Vault for more free content in the weeks ahead, as GDC organizers will also archive videos, audio, and slides from upcoming 2012 events like GDC Europe, GDC Online, and GDC China. To stay abreast of all the latest updates to GDC Vault, be sure to check out the news feed on the official GDC website, or subscribe to updates via Twitter, Facebook, or RSS. GDC and the GDC Vault are owned and operated by Gamasutra parent company UBM TechWeb.
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