Village Gamer

Vancouver social intranet software provider Intranet Connections has been selected by Ontario based healthcare organization York Central Hospital to provide its intranet services to their 2,500 users, providing an effective and accessible communications tool for healthcare workers on the go.

York Central Hospital was looking for intranet software to better organize their internal communications for healthcare professionals that access the intranet from computers across the four wing hospital throughout the day. The main objective of the intranet was to provide a central location for employees to access important company information. They use their intranet to announce their CEO’s message, hospital highlights, healthcare news, media coverage and press releases. Human Resources consolidated their important documents and policies onto the site and are promoting employees to apply for internal jobs within the Job Center application. A Google search widget allows employees to find content on the internet from the intranet home page.

Nelson Cardoso, Corporate Webmaster for York Central Hospital, says, “I appreciate the ability to create sub-sites that enable various departments and areas like fire and emergency and energy awareness to manage their own content. The service and response time needed to be efficient, and we found that in Intranet Connections.”

To prepare for the launch of Intranet Connections, York Central Hospital offered learning sessions, sent weekly engagement emails and advertised the new intranet with promotional posters and articles in the hospital newsletter. York Central Hospital uses Intranet Connections stats software to monitor visits to the site, whose visits have increased substantially in less than three weeks. The ease of using Intranet Connections software has made adding content simple. York Central Hospital allows users to manage their own content in the Physician Resource Center and Medical Affairs area of the intranet.

Conversion software ExactFlat converts 3D models into accurate, production-ready 2D cut patterns. Fully integrated with Autodesk Inventor software, ExactFlat extends the power of Inventor by making it optimally suited for manufacturers using industrial fabrics.

“ExactFlat’s 3D to 2D flattening algorithms have been used in some of the largest, most demanding, and most advanced global manufacturers for years and we are excited to bring this functionality to Autodesk Inventor. Now that ExactFlat is seamlessly integrated into the Inventor menu ribbon, it is easier than ever before for customers to save time, money and effort when they need to flatten complex 3D models into accurate 2D flat patterns,” said Carl White, director of Inventor digital design product management at Autodesk.

“ExactFlat leverages the engineering and CAD data within Autodesk Inventor to automate and simplify the manual, time consuming, and costly processes for flattening 3D models into 2D flat patterns. With well-designed models, 3D to 2D flattening is only 5 simple steps and can be completed in about 5 minutes. Manufacturers in marine, automotive, aerospace, architecture, performance garments, furniture and other industries using industrial fabrics will find ExactFlat indispensable to improving their prototyping and production efficiencies,” added Mark Jewel, founder of Tri-D Technologies.

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ExactFlat removes the design and manufacturing constraints imposed by traditional manual flattening processes. If you’re using 3D CAD and you need to create 2D flat patterns for the cutting table, ExactFlat is the fastest, most accurate and simple way to do it.

IT service management firm Consulting-Portal has announced the launch of ITOptimizer Version 2.0, a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution designed to help organizations achieve efficiencies by improving their Information Technology and Business processes.

“ITOptimizer 2.0 represents a major enhancement to the product and we are excited to provide this capability to our clients,” says David Mainville CEO and Co-founder of Consulting-Portal.

ITOptimizer Version 2.0 is the 5th release of our Business Process Management (BPM) software and is used by many Fortune 500 companies, along with numerous small to medium businesses, across North America and abroad.

“IT Optimizer is a great tool which has helped Telx assess, design and simplify our end-to-end revenue process. We are looking forward to the capabilities of version 2.0,” says Eric Shepcaro, CEO of TELX, provider of interconnection, colocation and business exchange services in strategic, high demand North American markets.

The software provides the following capabilities:

— Process Assessment: Configure and administer questionnaires designed to measure the maturity of your ITSM and Business processes with provisioned templates based on the COBIT and ITIL standards or you can build your own. Data is securely gathered over the Internet and stored centrally for reporting.

— Process Design: Define and document your ITSM and Business Processes using an easy to use interface and a library of ready to use templates based on the ITIL standard. Easily capture all the elements of the process in a central repository then automatically create process documentation.

— Process Governance: Define specific control objectives for your processes then measure compliance through the assignment of tasks and the collection of evidence. We supply ready to use COBIT and ITIL templates or you can build your own governance model to support SOX, ISO20000 and more.

— Process Education: All subscribers to ITOptimizer have access to free instructor-led classes on ITIL V3 Foundations, Process Assessment, Process Design and Process Governance.

As a SaaS application there is nothing to install in your environment. Advanced security protocols ensure your data is safe. Setup is easy and we help you be productive within hours. We also have a comprehensive suite of consulting services to compliment your in-house capabilities.

Desktop and Asset Management software specialist NetSupport has announced the immediate availability of the NetSupport DNA mobile console app – giving your IT support team and field engineers continuous access to essential customer PC data via their mobile devices.

Delivering a wealth of data for the target machine, NetSupport DNA is recognised as providing one of the most comprehensive and detailed hardware inventory modules available on the market today. Compatible with Android phones and tablets, iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, the new DNA mobile app connects with your central DNA inventory database, giving you access to accurate, up-to-the-minute asset management data wherever you are.

Key features include the ability to instantly call up the current hardware inventory for the target machine; view a detailed list of any historical changes to the hardware and software, and assess the cause of any logged PC alerts.

Expanding on the latest release, NetSupport’s Development Director Rob Hawkins explains: “Knowing the inventory of your IT assets is essential to the successful day-to-day management of any IT infrastructure. By making this data available on the move with our new mobile console, support engineers can now provide a much more effective service to customers while improving their own productivity.”

The NetSupport DNA mobile console app can be downloaded for free from the Android Marketplace, the Apple iTunes App store, Ovi and will soon be available for BlackBerry. The NetSupport DNA mobile console app is for use in conjunction with the NetSupport DNA Asset Management suite. Net Support is a UK-based company with an office in Markham.

WinMagic^® an innovator in full-disk encryption (FDE), has announced that in response to rapidly-increasing Global demand for its SecureDoc full-disk encryption technology it has opened an office in Frankfurt am Main in Germany to better serve the German, Russian and Eastern European markets. The Canadian company is deploying a knowledgeable local sales force and increasing its local marketing activities to significantly expand its services to mid-size and large enterprises in Central Europe over the next year.

WinMagic is the sole manufacturer to specialize in data security for portable devices. WinMagic’s SecureDoc is a powerful solution designed to protect sensitive data stored on laptops, tablets and removable media, such as USB thumb drives, CD/DVDs and storage cards. SecureDoc enables administrators to encrypt entire hard drives and provides convenient management and configuration options. Its central administration makes the creation and distribution of keys extremely simple. In addition, SecureDoc provides options to further protect encrypted data using new authentication technologies such as biometric systems.

WinMagic is the first vendor to support network connections in the pre-boot phase (PBConnex), thus permitting encryption to be introduced without the need to adapt existing IT processes. All new Opal-compliant self-encrypting drives (SEDs) are also supported. Furthermore, WinMagic is the first producer to offer high-performance, secure encryption for solid-state disks (SSDs). SecureDoc is compatible with all current versions of Windows, Mac OS X and Linux – making it simple to implement uniform security standards in heterogeneous environments.

“As an independent manufacturer of mobile data security solutions, WinMagic is currently experiencing tremendous growth in demand in its home market Canada, as well as in the United States and Japan, mainly due to its outstanding technology,” explained Georg Gann, WinMagic Director DACH & Eastern Europe. “Despite enterprises in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the rest of Europe placing particular value on technologically-advanced products, numerous competitors have lost their product development focus due to the consolidation in our industry, and as a result many customers are dissatisfied,” Gann continued. “WinMagic is totally focused on providing innovative solutions that simplify strong data protection for both users and administrators, and so we are confident that WinMagic and its distribution partners can meet all the expectations of increasingly-demanding customers far better than the antivirus vendors.”

DBI Technologies Inc., a provider of interface design and scheduling component software for the development community, has released Studio Controls for COM v2.1.  This new release provides traditional application developers with an advancing set of interface design and appointment scheduling components. ‘There are many commercial applications in the market place developed in traditional IDE’s, and in our current economic climate, many organizations are giving new life to their products with new features that can be quickly implemented.”

DBI has seen an incredible increase in the interest of Scheduling and User Interface design component software for COM based development environments over the last number of months. “We’re pleased to be able to respond to our customer requests for additional enhancements that are now found in release v1.2 of Studio Controls for COM”, said Craig Gluck, senior VP of  product development.  “The 62 royalty free components that comprise Studio Controls for COM are a perfect choice for commercial software companies and consultants offering packaged solutions for their customers.”  Studio Controls for COM adheres to Microsoft standards delivering design and operational performance wrapped in an advanced developer experience.

Value is more important than ever and competitive advantage even more critical in our current business climate. The combination of Value and Competitive Advantage can be found in Studio Controls for COM v1.2 offering benefits for Windows developers and for their end-users.  Value also includes being able to provide an outstanding developer experience, which is a tenant of good business and a point of pride for DBI. The release of Studio Controls for COM v1.2 offers Windows developers the latest in Windows styles and themes, a new set of data presentation features, as well, DBI’s industry respected high level of customer service.

The release of Studio Controls for COM v1.2 continues DBI’s market support for Windows developers offering nine logical groups of components covering: Scheduling, Data management (Lists, Trees and Grids), Masked Edits, Calendaring, UI Design, Navigation, Presentation, Dialogues and  general app styling.  Each current license of a DBI component product includes annual product updates, upgrades, new component releases and technical support on an annualized basis.  DBI has made managing a set of third party component software easy through the product’s integrated Product Manager.   The Product Manager becomes a single point of developer access to all of the product’s assets; components, help files, demo’s and sample applications, licensing, online software activation, product updates and related news items are all available from a single double click.

A single developer’s license of Studio Controls for COM starts at $749. Complete product details including samples with integrated PEM viewers in Visual Basic and Visual FoxPro formats can be found on the  DBI Technologies web site.

Calgary Scientific has announced a strategic partnership with the CyberSKA project. This project provides scientists and researchers around the world a platform to access and collaborate on the massive data sets coming from newer and bigger radio telescopes. CyberSKA is using PureWeb® from Calgary Scientific to web- and mobile-enable the astronomy viewer so the data can be analyzed without being moved and the results can be accessed anywhere in the world, on any device. It also allows researchers on different sides of the globe to interact and collaborate in real-time on the same information about the origin, structure and evolution of the universe.

“PureWeb provides the ability to analyze large multi-dimensional data sets from modern telescopes through our web portal without having to download these enormous files,” said University of Calgary Professor Russ Taylor, Director of the Institute for Space Imaging Science and CyberSKA Project Leader. “This eliminates the need to move these massive amounts of data to individual users, and provides the unique ability for researchers across the globe to collaborate with each other on the analysis of these data using whatever device they have – whether a desktop, laptop or tablet.”

Traditional approaches will not be able to process and move this massive amount of data as output will be in the range of 60GB per second – totaling terabytes in hours and petabytes in days. This includes the Square Kilometer Array – an international multi-billion dollar project to build the largest radio telescope in the world. With a total collecting area a million square meters (one square kilometre), it will be 50 times more sensitive and 10,000 times faster for imaging the sky than the most powerful telescopes today. Information collected will be shared around the world creating huge technical challenges.

“The partnership with the CyberSKA project is another example of how Calgary Scientific continues to demonstrate that PureWeb is a powerful, enabling platform that can uniquely address the most challenging issues related to high performance cloud computing. This project faces the ‘big data’ issue on an extreme scale and PureWeb is the answer,” emphasizes Byron Osing, CEO and Chair of Calgary Scientific. “PureWeb also maintains the highest degree of security as the data is never copied or moved across any network to the user. This is true whether it is a single user or a large group collaborating in real-time with the same data.”

PureWeb is the first software platform that allows multiple users to interact with the same instance of an application simultaneously. This new capability allows geographically distributed users to access any PureWeb enabled application and collaborate with other users in real-time. PureWeb allows existing software applications to be used in new ways and places, for less time and money, while maintaining high performance and security.

Canadian funding for the CyberSKA project is provided by CANARIE, Canada’s Advanced Research and Innovation Network.  Within Alberta, CyberSKA partners also include Cybera, a not-for-profit organization that spurs and supports innovation, for the economic benefit of Alberta, through the use of cyberinfrastructure.

It appears that there were loads of news announcements made while we were at SIGGRAPH with very sketchy wireless. The media room where we could have had a wired connection was two floors and a long walk away, but we wouldn’t have had long enough on the wired connection to catch up on everything. Here are just a few of the stories that broke during the past few days:

The Montreal International Game Summit announced its keynote speakers. The conference will open with Jason Rohrer, an independent Game Designer, and Richard Lemarchand, Lead Game Designer for Naughty Dog, on November 1st and 2nd respectively. Yves Guillemot, Co-Founder and CEO of Ubisoft, will have the honour of delivering the conference’s closing keynote.

Other featured speakers at MiGS 2011 include David Hego, Artistic Director for Rocksteady Studios, who will be presenting in the Arts & VFX Track. Alain Tascan, President & CEO at Sava Transmedia will be participating in the Business track while Lee Perry, Senior Gameplay Designer for Epic Games will be on the Design track. Over on the Technology track, attendees will find a presentation by Stefan Boberg, Technical Development Director at EA DICE, while the Production track will feature a presentation by David Anfossi, Producer – DX: HR at Eidos Montreal. A new track has been added for 2011, and Tom Salta, Music Composer known for producing scores featured in popular franchises such as R.U.S.E. and Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands will be the featured presenter for the brand new Audio track. Please visit the MiGS site for an up-to-date speaker list.

Ubisoft announced that PlayStation^® gamers will be able to test their assassination skills beginning on September 3rd with a multiplayer beta of the highly anticipated Assassin’s Creed Revelations that will run until September 11th. PlayStation^®Plus members and Uplay members will enjoy exclusive access to the multiplayer beta on PlayStation^®3. The multiplayer beta offers access to nine characters – The Sentinel, The Vanguard, The Guardian, The Vizier, The Thespian, The Deacon, The Bombardier, The Trickster and The Champion, three maps – Knight’s Hospital, Antioch, Constantinople, and four playable modes – Wanted and Manhunt, as well as two new modes, Deathmatch and Artifact Assault. The rest of us will apparently have to wait until the game’s release on November 15th.

Bioware’s Dragon Age franchise has expanded to Google+ games. Dragon Age™ Legends, the popular dark fantasy Play4Free® RPG developed by BioWare San Francisco (formerly EA 2D) has launched, and is the only game of its kind on Google’s new real-life social project. Dragon Age Legends extends the award-winning Dragon Age franchise and reinvents it for social play on Google+. The game blends accessible and engaging tactical combat, progression and exploration in the Dragon Age universe, and is perfect for co-operative and competitive gameplay across players’ Google+ Circles and Hangouts.

Vancouver’s WordLogic Corporation, a provider of advanced predictive text software for smartphones, PCs and other devices, has announced the availability of WordLogic Intelligent Input™ technology for licensing to manufacturers and software developers. The technology is ideal for mobile app developers, search providers, and device OEMs looking for the best possible predictive text or search technology.

WordLogic Intelligent Input™ helps make text input on touchscreen smartphones, tablets, and other consumer electronics devices faster, more accurate and helpful. Devices like smartphones, tablets, automotive infotainment systems, Internet TV, and game consoles are proliferating by the billions. They enable the Internet and employ touchscreens, body motion, infrared controllers or other non-mechanical keyboards to enter text, search and control applications. WordLogic Intelligent Input™ brings next generation text input to these text-hungry devices.

Current predictive text methods, which rely upon adjacent key prediction or misspellings, are frequently so inaccurate use that people simply turn them off. Alternatives require too much of a learning curve for mass adoption. Voice input has improved, but even server-based voice recognition is frequently insufficient in environments subject to background noise, such as groups where conversation is taking place, in vehicles, and on the street.

Gorilla Nation Media Canada has announced that it will exclusively represent the online advertising sales for European news site Figaro Medias in the Canadian market.

“Group Figaro is enthusiastic to join the Gorilla Nation family. We share the same vision of the digital business, which is to guarantee premium, innovative and engaging contents (video, chat session, etc.), to join our audience on all devices and platforms and to respond with care to our advertisers the same way we care about our content. The adaptability and the service quality of Gorilla Nation bring a new dynamic to the Figaro Medias offer in Canada,” says Eileen Lemuet, International Commercial Director at Figaro Medias.

“With the addition of Figaro Medias to our roster of sites, it shows our commitment and seriousness in increasing our offer in the French Canadian market, while complementing some of the new business sites we have recently added,” says Jean-Sébastien Tremblay, Director of sales, East of Canada, at GN Media Canada.

For those of you visiting the site today and wondering where all of the great Canadian news is that I usually share with you, well, we’re at SIGGRAPH 2011 with limited internet access, so posting any news is going to be a challenge. That said, there are lots of awesome Canadian companies (or international companies with a Canadian location) at SIGGRAPH this year, so I hope you stop by to visit. I’ve listed those with booths below.  We are in Booth 1018 – please stop by for a visit and an interview.

In the meantime, we have soft-launched our new project. Right now you can only look at our announcement, because there just aren’t enough hours in the day for the two of us to work on the new project, work on Village Gamer, get ready for SIGGRAPH and put in appearances at our paying day jobs. So, without further ado, please visit Canadian Creative and sign up for email notifications (we won’t be selling, renting or giving away your addresses) so that you know when the front door is unlocked and the coffee is on.

Canadian Companies on display at SIGGRAPH 2011:

3D3 Solutions – Booth: 879

Autodesk, Inc. – Booth: 429

British Columbia Film Commission – Booth: 889

Campbell River Creative Industries Council – Booth: 580

Capilano University – Booth: 807

Centre for Digital Media – Booth: 938

cebas Visual Technology Inc. – Booth 250

Digital Domain – Booth 343

Emily Carr University of Art + Design – Booth: 947

Eos Systems Inc. – Booth: 273

iDesign Solutions Booth: 609

MPC – Booth: 463

Measurand Inc. – Booth: 252

Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Investment Booth: 890

Muuun Technologies Inc. – Booth: 690

NDI – Booth: 969

Nelvana Studio – Booth: 708

NorPix Inc. – Booth: 1017

PO-MO Inc. – Booth: 808

Peer 1 Hosting Booth: 283

Pixar Animation Studios Booth: 235

Point Grey Research Inc. Booth: 255

Rainmaker Entertainment Booth: 971

Sheridan College Booth: 813

Side Effects Software Inc. Booth: 712

Simon Fraser University School of Interactive Arts and Technology – Booth: 151

Southpaw Technology Inc. – Booth: 158

Think Tank Training Centre Booth: 944

Toon Boom Animation, Inc. – Booth: 710

Ubisoft World – Booth 955

VanArts – Vancouver Institute of Media Arts Ltd. Booth: 490

Vancouver Animation School Booth: 381

Vancouver Film School – Booth: 739

Vancouver Motion Capture: Animatrik and Alastair Macleod – Booth: 968

Waterloo Region – Canada’s Technology Triangle – Booth: 480

Note:  booth numbers are as of August 1st, hopefully they weren’t moved – let me know if I missed anyone

Have you made Vancouver home for the next six days? If so, that must mean you’re planning to be at SIGGRAPH 2011, which opens tomorrow at the Vancouver Convention Centre and runs until Thursday evening. The Conference and Computer Animation Festival goes from August 7 right through until the 11th and the Exhibition floor with (200+ displays) is open from August 9th through 11th. It is still possible to pick up single day passes, and at just $45.00, they are too good of a deal to miss out on. If you prefer, there are passes still available for the entire week. We got a sneak peek at the expo floor last evening, and it looks awesome. Check out your options on the SIGGRAPH 2011 Registration Info page.

This is the first time the flagship conference for the ACM SIGGRAPH organization has been held in Canada, and is an incredible opportunity for the Canadian digital media and film industry sectors. There are, at my count, 37 Canadian companies – or international companies with a Canadian location – with exhibit booths on the conference floor, including ourselves in Booth 1018. This does not include the number of Canadian companies who may have a booth in the Job Fair area of the conference, nor those like Corel who will be working out of LightBox’s booth. Nor does it include the Canadian studios who will be represented in our booth with their trailers and games or those being highlighted through the DFAIT and provincial economic development booths. There is without a doubt going to be lots to see, lots to learn, and many people to meet at SIGGRAPH 2011.

SIGGRAPH 2011 highlights the full spectrum of the $67 billion annual computer graphics industry, showcasing the world’s finest technology exhibits, interactive displays, and the best in animation and visual effects. Numerous cutting-edge research and commercial products are shown to the public for the first time in interactive exhibit areas. Examples include:

• Displays: Watch attendees interacting with cutting-edge 3D displays that will change their home theaters and video game experiences.
• Robotics, Wearables, and Haptics: See people engaging with robots and stimulation devices such as a wearable pregnancy jacket that allows the user to feel a fetus’s temperature, movements, and heartbeat.
• Mobile Devices: Interact with the next wave of advancements in mobile technological devices such as a “watch” that turns your hand into a mini-keyboard.

You can get a look at the expo floor map (PDF) on the SIGGRAPH web site, it is current as of August 1st, and for those who are not aware, the expo hall is on the lower level of the new convention centre.