HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: dstamp@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca (Dave Stampe-Psy+Eng)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Re: MONDO 2000
Date: 30 Aug 92 12:16:03 GMT
Article-I.D.: watserv1.Btsq2s.J9K
Organization: University of Waterloo
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu



> tsines@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Todd J Sines) writes:

>i firmly agree that mondo is a little candy coated. even though my
>subscription just started two weeks ago, i find that it is filled with
>a lot of unwanted (IMHO) submissions with little quirks on virtual
>sex, dee-lite (two articles on them?!?) and a bunch of little
>information on homegrown VR (with 386's etc..)  and little cyberpunk
>info...        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I wonder if they'll be next to proclaim REND386 their standard
renderer (B-:{)) ...  just kidding, please don't hit...

-Dave Stampe, .sig on strike due to move
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
From: mac20@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Michael A Cecere)
Subject: Re: TECH: Volumetric Touch Screens
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 02:00:41 GMT



I'm not very fond of the idea of 2 sets of 2D arrays of leds to accomplish
 vol. touch scn, but it dawned on me how it could be done in a mannor
that would only require the usual 2 sets of 1D arrays of
leds/detectors, well maybe not leds.

instead of,idealy, a pencil beam of light shooting across the screen, make it
 a line of light, the plane being perpendicular to the scn. then in
front of the detector is a cylindrical lens that can bring the line to
a point.  in this manor, the amount of light hitting the det. would
depend on how much the finger is blocking. The line of light could be
had from any source, and probably preferably all could be obtained
from one or two sources one for each axis. a similar cyl lens could be
used to form the light with masking to create individual lines


Major problems:

The cyl. lens would be difficult to find/fabricate. note it could be
one lens for the whole side, but it would have to have a strong
curvature and be as wide as the desired depth.

the processing still basically involves gesture recognition as someone has
 already mentioned, though this is not necessarily such a problem for
simple applications.

i.e. the screen is divided into squares 1" X 1" showing say a
hamburger.  when you place your finger over the burger it turns into a
cheeseburg. press further and a double cheese etc... the square with
the deepest signal "must" be the one the person is indicating.

Sounds to me like a master's project for someone!

Hey, i had this idea over some chinese food. if anybody makes any
money over this i expect to get some.  :)

Michael Cecere
Columbia University
Applied Physics department.
mac20@cunixf.columbia.edu


***********************************************
****   In The Pale Light Of The Moon       ****
***    I Play The Game Of You.              ***
***    Whoever I Am.    Whoever You Are.    ***
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
From: avi@usl.com
Subject: PHIL: Essay:  "James Joyce and the Prehistory of Cyberspace"
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu
Organization: University of Washington
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 16:43:00 GMT



I was reading some stuff off the Postmodernism Culture listserv
and I found this:

BEYOND THE ORALITY/LITERACY DICHOTOMY:
JAMES JOYCE AND THE PRE-HISTORY OF CYBERSPACE

DONALD F. THEALL, University Professor, Trent University
_Postmodern Culture_ v.2 n.3 (May, 1992)
From: wolf@molout.tutkie.tut.ac.jp (Wolf)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Re:  TECH: New volumetric display (vs. Reality Engine?)
Date: 28 Aug 92 05:58:50 GMT
Organization: University of Washington
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu



Do you have the complete adress of the manufacturer at hand ?
I'd like to obtain some pamphlet.

Thanks.

WDI


[MODERATOR'S NOTE:  I haven't a full address, but Kenny Meyer of
Piltdown Industries was good enough to locate the phone number
for the company:

                        Lambda Systems
                        312-764-4401

                                                -- Bob Jacobson]
From: broehl@sunee.uwaterloo.ca (Bernie Roehl)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Re: TECH: cool.exe - location changed
Date: 28 Aug 92 13:43:55 GMT
Organization: University of Waterloo
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu



In article <1992Aug27.051313.17319@u.washington.edu> Nicolas Alejandro
Arauz <na0s+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:

>I've uploaded COOL.EXE to sunee.uwaterloo.ca, in the pub/incoming
>directory.

I've moved it to the pub/vr directory.

-- 
        Bernie Roehl, University of Waterloo Electrical Engineering Dept
        Mail: broehl@sunee.UWaterloo.ca
        BangPath: uunet!watmath!sunee!broehl
        Voice:  (519) 885-1211 x 2607 [work]
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
From: jheadley@dvorak.amd.com (James Headley)
Subject: TECH: PowerGlove/Mail Group and Amiga interface?
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu
Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.; Austin, Texas
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 12:44:13 GMT



Does anyone know what happened to the Power Glove mail group?  I was a
silent member for the most part but the last thing I read was that
they were changing the location of the list.  Since then I have not
received any mail from them.

Also I recently received a Power Glove and want to interface it with
my Amiga.  I know from the messages I have read here in the past that
code/schematics exist for serial and parallel port interfacing but I
did not write it down.  Could someone put me in touch with this
information.  It does not have to be amiga specific as I am willing to
translate it.

Thanks,

James H.
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
From: dpierce@sgimco.orlando.sgi.com (Dennis Pierce)
Subject: Re: TECH: Linking VR glove and synthesizer?
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA, USA
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 02:41:54 GMT



HyperHello!   :^)

In article <1992Sep3.072240.23843@u.washington.edu>,
76130.2225@CompuServe.COM (John Eagan) writes:

> pvanheus@frodo.cs.uct.ac.za (Peter van Heusden) writes:
> 
> >Firstly, has anyone tried linking a VR glove and a synthesizer to make
> >an instrument? I was thinking along the lines of one finger for
> >amplitude, another for pitch, etc. Also, I realise this will not be
> >(stuff deleted)

Jaron played virtual instruments at SIGGRAPH this year during the
Electronic Theater (video show).  The instruments were not close to
real but could ONLY exist in virtual space.  The audience saw what
Jaron saw and heard what he played.

> It's worth noting that Jaron Lanier is a musician, and as the story
> goes, Thomas Zimmerman of VPL had ideas about literally playing "air
> guitar" when the Dataglove idea was conceived.
> 
> If you want to do something relatively cheap, you could try using a
> Mattel/Nintendo Powerglove. The degree of control you would have is
> fairly gross for pitch control, but if I were doing what you're doing,
> I'd think in terms of using a powerglove and a PC, with a program to
> take various hand positions and finger bends and map them to values
> that correspond to MIDI "Note On" bytes, then feed those to a sampler
> with multisamples set up so that one octave would be a particular
> snippet of sound, another octave is all another "event", etc., or
> maybe use different glove gestures to trigger sequences.
> 
> You might want to check out the work Tod Machover has done using the
> Exos and assorted equipment. There have been a few magazine articles
> on him and his work, the most informative one I've seen was in
> Keyboard (don't remember the issue...I seem to recall INXS was on the
> cover of that one<?>) He refers to the assembled systems of
> controllers, computers, and musical hardware as <ACK!>
> "Hyperinstruments". (is anybody getting tired of the "hyper" prefix
> yet??)

HyperBye.

Dennis Pierce, SGI, 900 Winderley Place, Ste 130, Maitland, FL 32751
email: dpierce@sgi.com    vmail: 8548              
tel  : 407.660.0073       late : 407.660.2789      
fax  : 407.660.8981       cell : 407.256.8447      
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
From: bobp@hal.com (Bob Pendelton)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Re: TECH: Volumetric Touch Screens
Date: 27 Aug 92 21:47:08 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Aug28.193100.8860
Organization: HaL Computer Systems, Inc.
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu



From article <1992Aug27.050011.16805@u.washington.edu>, by
Jeremiah.Blatz@dartmouth.edu (Jeremiah Blatz):

> In article <1992Aug26.012223.22391@u.washington.edu>
> bobp@hal.com (Bob Pendelton) writes:
> 
>> Most of the info kiosks you see around use capacitive touch screens.
>> Very thin metal layers are deposited on the screen to form regions and
>> lines. Circuits in the back can detect the presenses of a finger by
>> the change in capacitance fo the regions.
>> 
>> This approach to touch sensing is cheaper and more reliable than the
>> array of leds approach.
> 
> Yes, but it's not *volumetric*. 

I know that :-) I was trying to correct a misconception about existing
systems seen in grocery stores.

> The problem w/LEDs is that they emit
> light in every direction, thereby making it very hard, if not
> impossible, to determine *wich* LED the user's [finger, hand, face,
> etc.] is under. 

Place a light in the bottom of a tube whose walls absorb light. You
can get a pretty tight beam that way...

> I see two possible solutions: 1) use uniquelt colored
> LEDs and light sensors with very accurate filters, 2) use lasers :-).

LED lasers are cheap and readily available. I'd rather assumed that
was the kind of LEDs being discussed.

> Good luck,

                Same to you, good day

                                Bob P.
-- 
Bob Pendleton             | As an engineer I hate to hear:
bobp@hal.com              |   1) You've earned an "I told you so."
Speaking only for myself. |   2) Our customers don't do that.
                   <<< Odin, after the well of Mimir. >>>
From: bigmac@eng.umd.edu (Mike McDonald)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: TECH: Looking for PC polygon engine
Date: 27 Aug 92 13:54:54 GMT
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park, College of Engineering
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu



I am looking for a PC based graphics card for use as a VR graphics engine.
The card needs to be able to produce atleast 20K Gouraud-shaded,100 pixel
triangles/second. If anyone knows of any PC (ISA) card(s) like this, please
email some information on it.  I will later post a summary of the responses
I receive.

Thanks,
Mike

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike McDonald                  
bigmac@eng.umd.edu               

"God not only plays dice, He sometimes throws the dice where they cannot be
 seen." - S. Hawking
From: bluefire@well.sf.ca.us (Bob Jacobson)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: JOB:  Senior software designer/systems analyst for WORLDESIGN
Date: 1 Sep 92 08:22:35 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Sep1.082618.9173
Organization: University of Washington
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu



WORLDESIGN, Inc., the nation's first information-design studio, is
seeking a senior software designer/systems analyst with extensive
technical accomplishments in system design and network operations.
You must be highly motivated, feel comforable personally dealing with
clients and their staffs, and be team-oriented: your responsibilities
would include participation on, and possible leadership of, a workteam
serving a particular client's needs.  If you have experience with
virtual worlds technology (VR) and presentational media and devices,
that's a big plus.
 
This position requires you to promptly relocate to Seattle.  Your pay
is startup-standard (modest) with stock transfers and bonuses making
up any disparaties.
 
WORLDESIGN is a new firm specializing in information-design solutions
sometimes employing virtual worlds to create productivity-enhancing,
comfortable "information environments."  We work with the best
technology we can find.  Our systems will be built around workstations
and PCs.  The firm is now negotiating startup financing and expects to
open its doors in October.
 
Please reply now, in full confidence.  Email is preferred; fax is
acceptable.
 
Bob Jacobson
President
WORLDESIGN, Inc. (and moderator, sci.virtual-worlds)
 
bluefire@well.sf.ca.us
+1-206-782-8630 fax
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
From: bobp@hal.com (Bob Pendelton)
Subject: Re: TECH: Volumetric Touch Screens
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu
Organization: HaL Computer Systems, Inc.
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 19:44:51 GMT



From article <1992Aug20.185356.12309@u.washington.edu>, by
dewind@acsu.buffalo.edu (Padraig):

> Yup...I've seen it used in supermarkets.  It allows someone to touch
> the screen where an option is written and thus choose where in the
> program they want to go...simple supermarkety types of stuff, but it
> can have lots of uses if one was creative enough.

Most of the info kiosks you see around use capacitive touch screens.
Very thin metal layers are deposited on the screen to form regions and
lines. Circuits in the back can detect the presenses of a finger by
the change in capacitance fo the regions.

This approach to touch sensing is cheaper and more reliable than the
array of leds approach.

                                Bob P.
-- 
Bob Pendleton             | As an engineer I hate to hear:
bobp@hal.com              |   1) You've earned an "I told you so."
Speaking only for myself. |   2) Our customers don't do that.
                   <<< Odin, after the well of Mimir. >>>
Newsgroups: sci.math
From: thompson@atlas.socsci.umn.edu (T. Scott Thompson)
Subject: Re: Polygon point enclosure
Reply-To: thompson@atlas.socsci.umn.edu
Organization: Economics Department, University of Minnesota
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 20:48:11 GMT

bs@gauss.mitre.org (Robert D. Silverman) writes:

>:>> I'm looking for a method to determine if a point is enclosed
>:>> by a polygon. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[algorithm deleted]

>:This algorithm is in _Algorithms_ by Robert Sedgewick, Addison-Wesley

>I will assume that the polygon is given by a set of points.

>Counting how many sides it intersects seems to require computing the
>equation for the line containing each side and determining whether
>the ray intersects the line between the two points. This requires
>computing O(N) equations and intersections.

>Why is this any faster than simply representing the interior of
>the polygon as a set of linear inequalities and simply checking
>whether the desired point satisfies each inequality?? This is also O(N).
>This is essentially equivalent to whether a solution is feasible
>in linear programming.

This approach only works if the polygon is convex.  Sedgewick's
algorithm works on nonconvex polygons too.

--
T. Scott Thompson              email:  thompson@atlas.socsci.umn.edu
Department of Economics        phone:  (612) 625-0119
University of Minnesota        fax:    (612) 624-0209
From: carle@molest.ugcs.caltech.edu (Matthew Thomas Carle)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: A Math Induction Problem
Date: 30 Aug 92 05:01:43 GMT
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena

bubai@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (P.Chatterjee) writes:

>I have solved/near-solved a math induction problem. Was wondering if somebody
 could point out whether it's flawed or not.

>I am trying to prove that n^3 + 5n is divisible by 6.

>This is how I proceeded:

>Assume k^3 + 5k = 6p.

>Then, (k+1)^3 + 5(k+1) = k^3 + 5k + 3k^2 + 3k + 6
>                       =6p + 6[(1/2)k^2 + (1/2)k + 1]

>Does that make sense? Or, are 1/2 's disallowed?

If you rearrange it, you get 

(k+1)^3 + 5(k+1) = 6p + 6[k(k+1)/2 + 1].  Either k or (k+1) must be even, so
the portion in the brackets is indeed an integer.

--

"This .sig intentionally left blank."
From: sec@otter.hpl.hp.com (Simon Crouch)
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 07:13:11 GMT
Subject: Re: polynomial roots and zero divisors
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Bristol, UK.
Newsgroups: sci.math

In sci.math, rcollins@cs.umass.edu (Bob Collins) writes:


>   I would like to find the eigenvalues/vectors of a square 
> matrix.  Unfortunately, the elements of the matrix are not 
> members of a field.  In particular, they are "dual numbers",
> defined in Yaglom's "Complex Numbers in Geometry" as a type of
> complex number (a + b E), a and b being reals, and E being a
> nilpotent imaginary unit; so E^2 = 0.  Dual numbers form a
> commutative ring, but they are not a field since any number 
> of the form (0 + a E) is a zero divisor.

Bob,
    I'm unfamiliar with Yaglom's definition, but you seem to be using
    a very simple case of "superspace" (the definition of it that
    is the algebra generated by 1 and anticommuting b_{1}....b_{n})
    with one anticommuting generator. There are various sources
    that go through linear algebra in superspace including
    "superdeterminants" and "superinverses". DeWitt's book "Supermanifolds"
    and a paper by, I think, Leites in the Doklady about 15 years ago
    cover this stuff (sorry for being vague but my references are at home!).
    I had some fun in my doctoral thesis analysing "supermanifolds" based
    on numbers of the form (a + b E), E^2 = 0.

    Simon.
From: bruck@mathj.usc.edu (Ronald Bruck)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: Proof of God's Existence
Date: 2 Sep 1992 10:54:50 -0700
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: mathj.usc.edu

In article <1992Sep2.010215.2202@news.cs.brandeis.edu> palais@binah.cc.brandeis.edu writes:
>   I'm surprised that nobody has brought up the anecdote
>of Euler's "proof" of the existence of God. As I heard it,
>while at the court of Catherine the Great, Euler was asked 
>to take part in a debate, and refute a famous skeptic who 
>would argue against the existence of God. 
>
>   After the skeptic had his say, Euler, who knew that his 
>opponent knew nothing of Mathematics, got to his feet and 
>said "e^{i\pi)} + 1 =0. Donc il existe!", and sat down.
>His rival was completely taken aback and gave up the debate.




There was an article in the American Mathematical Monthly (I believe)
around 1951 which traced this story very carefully.  As I recall, it
first appeared in the memoirs of somebody non-mathematical and didn't
mention Euler by name (although it could have been nobody else).
Diderot was named; supposedly to refute Diderot's atheism, Euler
told him something like "x^n + y^n = z; repondez!"  Being totally
ignorant of mathematics, Diderot could not reply and left the court
in embarrassment.

The only problem with this story is that Diderot had published
mathematical works (mathematical physics?) and was certainly aware
that such a statement was nonsense.

It was Sol Golomb who gave me a copy of the debunking article; 
I have it around somewhere...

--Ron Bruck
bruck@mtha.usc.edu preferred
From: rbk5287@usl.edu (Kearfott Ralph B)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: interruption in EMAIL service
Date: 28 Aug 92 18:42:08 GMT
Organization: University of Southwestern Louisiana

Baker Kearfott
Lafayette, Louisiana
rbk@usl.edu (Internet)
Newsgroups: sci.math,sci.systems,bionet.info-theory
From: joslyn@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov (Cliff Joslyn)
Subject: Double stochasticity and entropy in Markov processes
Organization: Goddard Space Flight Center
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 92 02:59:10 GMT

\documentstyle[11pt]{article}

\begin{document}

I have a rather simple (I think) information theory problem which I can't
seem to find addressed in my texts (Ash, {\it Information Theory}; Martin
and England, {\it Mathematical Theory of Entropy}), and I hope that the net
can help me. I think that all I may need is a reference to the right
textbook.

Assume a Markov process on a finite universe $X = \{ x_i \}$ with a time
parameterized probability state vector $p^t = ( p^t_i ), p^t_i = p( x_i
\hbox{ at time } t ), t \in I$ and transition matrix $R = [ r_{ij} ],
r_{ij} = p( x_i \hbox{ at time } t+1 | x_j \hbox{ at time } t )$. Of
course, we have $p^t_i = \sum_j p^{t-1}_j r_{ij}$, and entropy $H( p^t ) =
\sum_i p^t_i \log_2( p^t_i )$. 

It's usual to define the uncertainty of the stochastic process as the limit
of the conditional entropy $\lim_{t \rightarrow \infty} H( p^t | p^{t-1},
p^{t-2}, \ldots, p^0 )$. 

But what I'm interested in is the long-run behavior of the entropy of the
state vector $H( p^t )$ itself, that is $\lim_{t \rightarrow \infty} H( p^t
)$. In particular, a colleague of mine has suggested that $H( p^t )$ grows
monotonically if and only if $R$ is ``doubly stochastic'', that is $\forall
i, \sum_j r_{ij} = 1$, not just $\forall j, \sum_i r_{ij} = 1$.

Any help would be appreciated. Posts are fine, otherwise I'll post the
email summary.

Thanks in advance.

\end{document}

O----------------------------------------------------------------------------->
| Cliff Joslyn, Cybernetician at Large, 327 Spring St #2 Portland ME 04102 USA
| Systems Science, SUNY Binghamton      NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
| cjoslyn@bingsuns.cc.binghamton.edu    joslyn@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov
V All the world is biscuit shaped. . .
From: weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Volume 2 of TCOFSG?
Date: 30 Aug 92 22:23:44 GMT
Reply-To: weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Organization: The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology

With Gorenstein's passing, I was wondering what the status of volume 2
of his detailed survey of the existing classification proof of finite
simple groups is.
-- 
-Matthew P Wiener (weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu)
Newsgroups: sci.math
From: claird@NeoSoft.com (Cameron Laird)
Subject: Re: Kolmogorov's theorem
Organization: NeoSoft Communications Services -- (713) 684-5900
Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1992 14:23:42 GMT

In article <94995@bu.edu> Lnd@cs.bu.edu writes:
			.
			.
			.
>Every continuous multivariate real function can be represented as a depth-4
>composition of continuous one-variate functions and sum. This result of
>Kolmogorov and his student Arnold solves the 13-th Hilbert problem.
>
> A.N.Kolmogorov. Soviet Math. Doklady (DAN SSSR) 108(2), 1956.
> V.I.Arnold. Same 114(4), 1957.
> A.N.Kolmogorov. Same 114(5), 1957.

Can someone "explain" Kolmogorov, in a few
words, or perhaps point me to a biography
(I'd be happy to read a Russian one, if I
can get my hands on it)?  He was, of course,
one of the big, big thinkers of our century,
but I haven't yet succeeded in getting a
handle on his work.  I run into him in so
many areas ...  Hilbert, for example, was
at least as universal in his work, but I can
at least begin to summarize his work by
noting that he posed and solved problems,
often those which arise in calculating
solutions to integral equations.  What were
Kolmogorov's themes?

This is perhaps a good place to point out
that, along with everything else he wrote,
Kolmogorov was also a success popularizer.
It's been some time since I read anything
of his in this category, but I remember them
as charming.
-- 

Cameron Laird
claird@Neosoft.com (claird%Neosoft.com@uunet.uu.net)	+1 713 267 7966
claird@litwin.com (claird%litwin.com@uunet.uu.net)  	+1 713 996 8546
Newsgroups: sci.math
From: steiner@andy.bgsu.edu (Ray Steiner)
Subject: Re: Continued Fractions
Keywords: Help, Continued Fractions
Organization: Bowling Green State University B.G., Oh.
Distribution: na
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1992 20:22:22 GMT


I think the best treatment of continued fractions I have
ever seen is in Chapter 4 of Davenport's THE HIGHER
ARITHMETIC.
Ray Steiner
-- 
steiner@andy.bgsu.edu
Newsgroups: sci.math