Second Tense

STOP SOPA / PIPA

2012-01-17T23:34:00.003-05:00

This picture I created and give it away to public domain. No copyright. Use however you want. But hopefully, use on Facebook in the next 24 hours as your profile picture.SOPA MUST BE STOPPED OR BLOGS LIKE THIS WILL NOT BE ABLE TO OPERATE

Game Design In One Word: Male-Dominated

2012-01-04T15:45:00.010-05:00

Continuing the thoughts from my last post on chauvinism in game design ...I saw a link to this video on Twitter via SL user GiannaBorgnine.Let's play "count the women". Actually, let me spoil it for you. It's two. Of dozens.The first is buried 2/3rds into the video at 1:00. Her word is "curiosity". This is Robin Hunicke, from TGC, and is the only one who says that word. TGC is a 12-person team,

Sexism in Game Design: Games 4 Change, Snow Crash, and Intellectual Arrogance

2011-12-14T09:00:00.004-05:00

Women are desperately needed as game and virtual world designers.This has been my belief for a while, but once again reinforced when I attended the Games 4 Change conference back in June at NYU in Manhattan.Acclaimed near-future science fiction novelist Neal Stephenson is famous for two things regarding virtual worlds:1. Creating an indelible image in the minds of many geeks of the Metaverse he

11 Predictions for 2012 for MMOs, Virtual Worlds, Social Media

2011-11-29T12:09:00.008-05:00

2012 Predictions:1. Second Life keeps going, marketing as a game. Not much changes.2. OpenSim gets a couple middleware player coming into the market with a great business offerings and adoptions of OpenSim by business and universities continue to bloom.3. Star Wars: The Old Republic is a smash hit.4. World of Warcraft slowly wanes, losing another 2 - 3 million customers. That said, even at 7

What Happened To Google+ ?

2011-10-19T12:22:00.001-04:00

Number of new features since Google+ launched: 0Key features lifted by Facebook: Groups and per-post choosing of audience. This thusly removed the biggest advantage of Google+.Advertising / Marketing / Email notifications trying to bring more people on Google+: 0Number of articles that have come out on Google+ requiring "real names" for signup: LotsNumber of articles describing how Gmail got shut

Why I'm Not Buying Groupon's IPO: Part 2, Short and Sweet

2011-08-11T10:09:00.003-04:00

Groupon's not profitable. So, if they're taking a large cut of every coupon sold, and still aren't making a profit - I'd say they're about done.

Why I'm Not Buying Groupon's IPO

2011-07-19T21:50:00.002-04:00

Groupon recently filed to have an Initial Public Offering of their company. Why would you IPO after so much growth? Easy, they're trying to cash out before their company crumbles around them.I know this is exceptionally doom-and-gloom for me, and I am usually more nuanced, but frankly, I don't see how Groupon can stay competitive as-is. Groupon has depended on first-to-market advantage, and

Proposals Submitted for SLCC: Identity, Storytelling, Choice

2011-07-15T19:32:00.003-04:00

After consulting with the Second Life Community Convention (SLCC) organizers and track leaders, I've submitted proposals for three slots:"Avatar Identity: Privacy and Transparency in Social Media" (panel discussion + Q&A)"Storytelling Secrets for Successful Virtual Environments" (speakers + Q&A)"Choosing the Right Virtual World for the Right Project" (speakers + workshop)I'll post more details as

Will Second Life and Metaverse Abruptly End Tomorrow?

2011-07-05T15:29:00.004-04:00

Well, will it? Some say it will. "Who?" you ask? Well, allow me dodge that question and instead go to FUD.Here's a generic list of concerns:Technology adoption is difficult to predict.It is not clear what new technologies may challenge current ones.It is not clear if current platform providers like Linden Lab will continue to be stable.The older generation is resistant to change.Performance of

Social Media is Not A Sickness

2011-06-14T12:12:00.008-04:00

I just read a fairly straightforward criticism of social media as a cause of social disconnect and dehumanization. It is, of course, predictable and typical Luddite-ism. There is a sickness, but it's in humans. Technology is simply one of many things in our environment with which we react.The crux of the article was focused on anecdotes: The relative who takes too many pictures at a family

Linden Limericks

2011-05-13T12:46:00.002-04:00

gwenners There was an old man named Magellan... Zero ... Linden PR he was sellin' gwenners but in Elderglen, he could not get back in...

Bin Laden's Death: A Non-Sequitor

2011-05-03T10:19:00.011-04:00

We shouldn't celebrate the death of any person. We should, however, celebrate what stopping Usama represents. These two things are separate concepts. Usama bin Laden had 10 years of opportunities to surrender or disappear completely. He had to be stopped. He died in a firefight. We can relish the fact that he was stopped, while simultaneously knowing it was unfortunate that it came to his - and

Creating Safe Communities: Why an 11 year old autistic boy cheats

2011-01-27T12:34:00.005-05:00

So you may have read or seen this story about how an 11 year old autistic boy was labeled a cheater by XBox Live and his 1500 achievements taken away:The first reaction might be, "How could that happen? Why are you so evil, Microsoft!"And, according to Stephen Toulouse, Director of Policy and Enforcement for Xbox LIVE, he had personally verified that some outside means was done to get those

10 Outlandish VW Predictions for 2011

2011-01-04T10:49:00.007-05:00

I'm not going to try this year to make accurate predictions. Instead, I will predict outlandish ones that I have little evidence to believe will come true. If I accidentally get any of them right, we can have a good laugh. (It's all in good fun, right?)1. Linden Lab will go full-on in content creation. With the new CEO being game-focused, and hints of other content creation (gambling ban

Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Lawyers C&D Virtual Museum

2010-12-02T12:58:00.015-05:00

I was saddened to read this morning that the Frank Lloyd Wright Virtual Museum in Second Life (FLWVM) is scheduled to go offline on December 10. This is following a Cease and Desist letter they received from the lawyers of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation (FLWF). The Foundation was created by the architect to preserve his legacy, and had previously been in agreement with the virtual museum and

Fix the INTERFACE! How a Noob Sees Second Life

2010-11-19T10:48:00.010-05:00

It is not the features. It's not even accessing it on a web browser. (Though that's nice, I doubt the tech will be where it needs to be to be useful anytime soon.) No, it is the damn interface. It's too complicated. We've known it for nearly a decade and it's only gotten marginally better. It needs to be dumb-simple.I've previously praised Viewer 2.0 for being a great improvement. I should

Artistic Output

2010-11-08T00:48:00.005-05:00

Choose your own Ronventure episode 1. "Ron's Next Hobby". *================Page 1:Ron has adjusted to his current mode of life and has emotional bandwidth / energy to take on a hobby. At some point in his life, Ron would like to do all three of the following, but is having difficulty figuring out what to do next.Should Ron:A. Take back up fencing, which has health benefits, is fun, and I

Educators out of Second Life - Maybe it's for the Best?

2010-10-08T23:17:00.002-04:00

I'm going to advocate an idea that isn't just mine - but of many forward thinking individuals working with virtual worlds.The idea of the singular "Metaverse" is flawed.The problem is that the Metaverse that we read about in Science Fiction was some singular entity - one world designed by one company. What a gross oversimplification! And how blind so many of us have been, myself included.Philip

Linden Lab to Educators: Our Foot Is Bleeding

2010-10-06T11:49:00.010-04:00

Am I being harsh in the title? Well, not compared to this tweet:@john_carter Linden Lab to Educators: Drop Dead. Well, back atcha, guys. "Kate Miranda posts a good explanation on her Music Island blog about why Linden Lab is acting stupidly in removing educator discounts. I commented, but I'll repeat my thoughts here, because I believe education is one of the strongest use cases for

Linden Lab Has No Apparent Business Plan

2010-09-27T19:46:00.006-04:00

How does Linden Lab, creators of the most popular non-game virtual world, Second Life, make their money?Easy: land and a cut of the marketplace.How are they going to ensure that they continue to have this revenue stream?Easy: Stick their fingers in their ears and pretend its competitors don't exist.Losing Education and Corporate FocusVirtual tradeshows? Business meetings spaces with integrated

Scott Pilgrim a Harbinger: Augmented Reality as Expressionism

2010-09-10T12:32:00.000-04:00

The Background - Yet Another Movie Influences My ViewsGreat stories have the ability to make one re-examine what one knows and come up with radically different ways of looking at the same things. It is these kinds of reexaminations that leads us to shift the way we think, speak, and do. Of all movies, I didn't expect Scott Pilgrim vs. The World to be a catalyst for me rethinking how I view

Who Controls the Puppet? I Do.

2010-08-10T16:29:00.003-04:00

Extropia DaSilva recently posted an interesting article on existence in regards to avatars and their controllers. I started to type a reply and realized I could just turn it into a blog post. Please read her article on her blog for context. In response:More philosophical musings. Okay, I'll take a stab, as usual.Overall, the meta-topic is "does technology control us or do we control technology".

M out, Philip back in Second Life

2010-06-24T12:47:00.002-04:00

As blogged about on the Second Life blog. I'll have a more complete post soon, with all the recent changes for Second Life, and what that means to virtual world development, business, and educators.

Facebook Doesn't Get It, Redux

2010-06-01T10:33:00.004-04:00

There's plenty of blogs describing why Facebook is playing a very corporate game of "pretend we hear you and deliver you something different from what you ask for, so we can keep selling ads". Time for a straight-out point-by-point rebuttal.What should we use? Let's look at a paragon of real journalism such as The Washington Post. I"m disappointed that they would feature a column by none other

Apple and Facebook Go Uncool

2010-05-14T14:14:00.004-04:00

Lately Facebook and Apple have both been getting huge backlash for their respective user-unfriendly policies. I'm here to tell you why in a very simple metaphor. It has to do with waves and surfing.Someone once told me that technology is like waves on the beach. They have their own impetus, and will come rolling into shore inevitably. Inventors of technology are surfers. They don't invent the

Where I've Been and Where I'm Going

2010-04-26T21:12:00.005-04:00

The last year has been a roller coaster ride for me professionally, and I'm just getting a chance to catch my breath. First and foremost, I suppose I should formally mention my new employment with Siemens Corporate Research. Secondly, I'd like to chat a bit about what I've been up to beyond what I've already blogged about in the last year.On April 1, 2010, I started working in the Knowledge

21 Reasons the New Second Life Viewer 2.0 is a Huge Improvement

2010-02-23T15:16:00.001-05:00

Viewer 2.0 is, in fact, dozens of long-requested features. The fact that these features we've asked for years and years of Linden Lab to deliver for the Second Life platform is a testament to the teams and leadership, and is a very good sign for the longer-term viability of Second Life as a platform. Two of the most stand-out features are HTML on a prim and treating a browser like a browser. But

Shifting Focus of Virtual Worlds

2010-02-18T10:46:00.004-05:00

This year will see increasing corporate and academic use of virtual worlds for private, individual ventures. Marketing efforts in virtual worlds are pretty much frozen solid, but will thaw a little proportionate to the recovery of the economy.Second Life will continue to be the industry leader for interactive virtual worlds, while opensim-based and Second Life spinoff worlds will enjoy success

Muppets and Convergence Culture

2010-02-11T14:17:00.003-05:00

If you haven't seen this meme, you will soon. Beaker does "Dust in the Wind" and gets comment-spammed by YouTube. (faked, but funny commentary on the medium. It's both funny and shows deep understanding of social media.YouTube is not a new medium for the Muppets. Naturally, the Muppets are ingrained in our culture and naturally emerge into new media like YouTube. Smart brands, like the Muppets,

How I'd Write the Avatar Sequel

2010-02-07T01:45:00.005-05:00

James Cameron claims that Avatar is, essentially, "Dances With Wolves ... in space ... sorta". Yet it's clear to me and others interpreting the movie that, at the very least, the setting is a post-singularity world, or at least something similar. Obviously movies often have more than one plot, sometimes layers and layers of plot. While I find it hard to believe that Cameron would accidentally put

Humanism without the Secular

2010-02-02T13:19:00.007-05:00

I've had some fantastic conversations over the last couple months since seeing James Cameron's Avatar. One last night with virtual world veteran Larry Rosenthal (aka Cube3), may have snapped one more of the crucial pieces together. He and I discussed my review of Avatar and transhumanism, and he pointed out that my beliefs were just plain humanism. He's right. I don't think we can essentially "

Pirating Music: It's Called Free Samples

2010-01-23T11:40:00.004-05:00

I don't pirate musicI don't pirate music mainly because, like books, I generally don't listen to new music unless it's recommended to me personally. At that point, I normally just run out and buy the physical album, because I still enjoy hearing a set of songs specifically arranged together. You know, an album. I also sometimes hear new music played on 101.9 WRXP in New York City**. Radio has,

Net Neutrality's Death: By Supreme Court

2010-01-22T23:10:00.004-05:00

So, Haiti is all over the news. It is, in fact, a horrible, horrible tragedy.But you should totally be already aware of the most recent Supreme Court decision about political contributions. It's right on the front page of ... no, wait... click on "politics" of your favorite news site... now ... scroll down... further. Okay, now ... hmm... hit "archive" now search for "Supreme Court". Okay, there

Second Life's Real Growth and Pretend Growth

2010-01-20T16:18:00.010-05:00

This is like deja vu, for me, since I seem to talk about it at least a few times a year to people.Linden Lab released its latest numbers for the Second Life economy. On the surface, the headline is "ZOMG SL ECONOMY GROWS 65%!". In fact, the blogosphere has already picked up this headline, in the usual "Gee, I don't bother to understand the platform, technology, or relevance." that I so recently

Non-Human Avatars in Business Use - Nokia Connecting Worlds

2010-01-19T08:35:00.002-05:00

Back in October I did a panel with some smart folks, for a Nokia series in Second Life. The topic was "Perceptions of Non-Human Avatars in Virtual World Business". Thanks to Treet.TV for filming, hosting the video, and the link."Your host Hydra Shaftoe (wolf) finds out from this panel: Blue Linden (dragon), ePredator Potato (alien), Digistar Brower (Nokia spokesperson), Hiro Pendragon (ninja),

Virtual World Guru Posers

2010-01-18T12:36:00.006-05:00

Oh, the posers.So, I've been in virtual worlds since about 2001. That's only half as long as some of the old school VRML veterans, experts like Bruce Damer, et al. But for the new age of virtual worlds, the 3-D rendered graphics, broadband-driven ones, I can claim a decent level of expertise. I have seen folks come and go over the years. This was especially true in the 2006 - 2007 heyday of

Google vs. China, Part 2: Obama Backs Google

2010-01-14T11:54:00.003-05:00

Impressive."Robert Gibbs, Mr Obama's press secretary, emphasised that the President backed internet freedom and said that Google had co-ordinated with the Obama administration before it had acted."Mark my words - this story's just at the tip of the iceberg. We're going to be hearing a lot more about China, censorship, and cyber attacks.

Google to End Chinese Censorship Cooperation

2010-01-13T12:28:00.003-05:00

<3 Google today.Read this article on Mashable. Basically, Google had been complying with China's search censorship requests, and had taken a lot of heat for it. And then "sophisticated attacks on the Gmail accounts of Chinese human activists" forced Google to change its mind. Read the article if you want the story, but I want to talk about why Google was smart from start to end on this.1. Google

James Cameron's Avatar is about Transhumanism

2009-12-23T13:20:00.007-05:00

I'm not going to put pretty pictures of Avatar in this review. If you want a solid review of Avatar based on the significance of the artwork, check out this article at Gizmodo. Writer Mark Wilson gets it right on when he likens Avatar to Jurassic Park; it's that kind of landmark in movie-making. I remember before Jurassic Park, there was computer graphics, and after Jurassic Park, there were

Second Life: Where to go in 2010

2009-12-17T13:47:00.004-05:00

Disclosure: My company recently completed the official Second Life Enterprise Orientation Island for Linden Lab. If you noticed I haven't been writing the "Linden Lab needs to do this and that" articles in the past few months, that's essentially why. I'm *very* pleased with the Enterprise Island, which is tentatively launching in Q1 2010, but other than that, I still can not talk about it.That

Cory Doctorow Speaks in Second Life

2009-12-16T14:03:00.003-05:00

Short post - a couple of pictures I took from Cory Doctorow speaking in Second Life, interviewed by Mitch Wagner on Copper Robot, hosted by World2Worlds.

FTC Investigates Virtual Worlds for Explicit Content: A Summary

2009-12-11T10:05:00.006-05:00

Recently, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) did a study on explicit content available to minors in virtual worlds. The full findings are available in PDF form here. (Thanks, @DusanWriter for alerting me to this.)A quick summary:There is sexual and violent content in free online virtual worlds.Virtual world development companies are trying to keep minors out.Minors can still relatively easily

James Cameron's Avatar - New Trailer

2009-12-03T13:07:00.005-05:00

... well, it should be.EXT. HMS TITANIC'S FOREDECK. SUNSETThe overly familiar opening flute notes from "My Heart Will Go On" begin to play. Narrator speaks while slow montage fades in and out between various quintessential moments from the film "Titanic" by James Cameron.NARRATORWe at 20th Century Fox want to express how muchwe love female moviegoers. Twelve years ago, youmade Titanic the highest

Project Natal: Forget Gaming, It's a Virtual World Tool!

2009-11-20T12:20:00.006-05:00

I love the idea of natural controllers and using 3-D cameras to better interact with games and virtual worlds.Working Demo, or Just a Tech Demo?Early this year Microsoft "demoed" Project Natal at E3. I put quotes around it, because a source told me that it was indeed a mock-up. That, and it was abundantly obvious to me watching the video that if they had a working project, they would have had let

Value of Virtual Shows: The First Question

2009-11-17T16:37:00.003-05:00

Tonight I'm going to be a guest on the game show "The First Question", hosted in Second Life and streamed to the web. I caught the show for the first time last week, after a large number of friends had recommended it to me. I am very pleased to be on The First Question. Come learn what periodic element I most identify with! See if I can stump Hydra with a random factoid of knowledge! Come root

Twitter's Hype vs. Second Life's Hype

2009-10-27T13:54:00.003-04:00

I saw this at New World Notes:It's the final slide from a presentation Linden Lab Chief Product Officer Tom Hale gave at the Web 2.0 summit. Now, Tom's demonstrated his tech and marketing savvy during his presentations at the Second Life Community Convention this year, talking about the various ways Second Life will evolve. I won't get into it here, but just want to establish that when I disagree

Me Versus Copy of Me: Transhumanism's Dilemma

2009-09-25T15:14:00.018-04:00

Transhumanism: "Transhumanism is an international intellectual and cultural movement supporting the use of science and technology to improve human mental and physical characteristics and capacities."It is not a philosophy, as it may sound like some reaction to Humanism. Its beliefs range from using advanced medicine to cure diseases to the extreme of uploading human consciousness into computers

Life's Meaning From Written Word

2009-09-23T15:36:00.011-04:00

Things seem more authoritative when written down. Why are people drawn to biographical stories, even in common TV and movies and other media? Personal blogs? Etc? The written word has a magical property.I am in the middle of a long blog post that I've been working on about 9/11, technology, god, philosophy, and transhumanism. (It will probably become a series of blog posts; it's already really

SLCC: How Do We Move Forward?

2009-09-10T12:15:00.010-04:00

So, last month I went to Second Life Community Convention 5, held this year in San Francisco. There were about 350ish attendees, a mix of professionals developers, entrepreneurs, musicians, and various other Second Life users. Along with the superbly talented and friendly Hydra Shaftoe, I co-ran the Business Track; I was very pleased with the fact that the Business Track rooms was almost always

James Cameron's Avatar movie trailer out

2009-08-20T13:57:00.004-04:00

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/avatar/check out the hotness!So, from what I gather from the trailer:1. Humans have spaceflight, travel to habitable world (with different atmosphere that can't be breathed by humans.)2. Humans have download-your-brain technology.3. Humans discover alien race, either capture / find dead one and plug human soldier's (protagonist) brain into one of them. (hence,

China Declares: Game Money Can't Be Spent Outside the Game

2009-07-03T12:20:00.000-04:00

This blew my mind the other day.CNN reports that China has made a decision that all virtual currencies can not be used for any purpose outside of purchasing virtual goods.An Information Week article came out two days prior, but was more ambiguous whether sale of virtual money for real money was explicitly banned.What blows my mind on a smaller scale is that I waited two days before continuing to

Second Life Solution Provider Conference: Lots of Great Features

2009-06-16T12:24:00.003-04:00

... and I can't talk about them yet. Solution Provider Conference attendees are under NDA. Inevitably, it will be leaked, and I'll talk about them once they're out there, but suffice it to say -A LOT of long-asked simple features are being implemented in new versions of the Second Life browser and into next year. There's also really smart changes to the Second Life website coming.One thing that

Augmented Reality Uses: A Brief Overview

2009-06-12T10:45:00.006-04:00

Let's cut to the chase. This is what nVidia's working on for graphics-enabled phones (iPhone, Blackberry, etc):Cool, eh?What's cooler is the Postal Service has a released augmented reality app for you to estimate box sizes for your shipping needs, by projecting semi-transparent boxes on top of images of your real items.Augmented Reality is, naturally, perfect for virtual worlds. Here's a

Virtual Worlds: Why Handshakes Pale Compared to Facial Expressions

2009-06-08T11:31:00.004-04:00

Before you call me a hypocrite, understand that I still think handshakes are important. But facial expressions are an order of magnitude more important.Recently, a good discussion has come up in the SLDeveloper mailing list about facial expressions from video. This is, of course, a topic I trumpet every few months here. The discussion on the mailing list soon went back to another old

Wired Misses the Whole Point of Anonymous

2009-05-11T22:12:00.008-04:00

Religious ConvictionsI believe people can believe whatever that they want as long as it doesn't hurt others. In my personal life, I've spoken out against a variety of religious groups that claim to be part of many religions, including my own. I speak out when they do things like promote Proposition 8 in California. When they teach people that the only way to heaven is through suicide. When they

Format Change

2009-05-11T12:21:00.001-04:00

As much as I love the beautiful design of the aesthetics of my blog, it's time for a change. It's been a few years, and so a new look is warranted on that note alone. In addition, there are Blogger features that I'd like to use that I can't with my current format, so upgrading will allow me to do new neat embedded stuff.Anyway, apologies are in order while I poke around with a new template for

Lipsync and Facial Expressions and The Uncanny Valley

2009-05-01T15:40:00.003-04:00

I've talked about the Uncanny Valley before when it comes to avatars in a virtual world, and how close Second Life is to getting avatars to a convincing level and not be "freaky-looking".The topic has come up again in the SL Developers mailing list in regards to a discussion on whether or not to make lip-sync a default setting in a newer version of the Second Life client. For those unaware, you

The Same Old Second Life First Life Joke

2009-04-12T09:26:00.003-04:00

If you're familiar with Second Life, it's a pun you've heard before. Heck, you've probably even told it yourself. It's a typical straight-faced setup by someone talking about Second Life followed by the obvious punchline. It goes something like this:Person enthusiastic about Second Life: "Something something something Second Life something something avatars in a virtual world something something

Two Speaking Engagements Today

2009-04-07T11:04:00.002-04:00

I have the honor of speaking at two different engagements today, that you can attend virtually in Second Life.First, at 3pm EST / 12Noon PST, I will be speaking at Nokia Connected Worlds - April Edition"Nokia Corporation is proud to announce its April edition of Nokia Connected Worlds. This will be a panel-style moderated discussion about perceptions of non-human avatars in virtual world business

The Impending Reputation Market

2009-04-03T14:31:00.016-04:00

Credit where credit due: Charles Stross and his book Accelerando provided the tangible idea of the Reputation Market to me.What is a Reputation Market? Rank EVERYTHING!We as humans been comparing and rating things since ... well, forever. We rank everything:- New York Times Bestseller list- IMDB's popularity ratings of all movies and movie-making professionals- Social cliques we form in school (

Basic Functions Second Life Needs

2009-03-31T10:30:00.003-04:00

double-click ground to walkThis is a case of using an already-existing paradigm of navigation. People know what a double-click is from operating system navigation. Other virtual worlds and games use the double-click on the ground as a standard. So, you know the "Go here" function on the right-click pie menu? Why can't that same function be the default double-click action on the land?Look AtHere's

Linden Lab's Red Light District Idea: Re-evaluating Adult Content and Privacy in Second Life

2009-03-13T11:15:00.017-04:00

So I was pleased to read to read that Linden Lab was re-evaluating their adult content policies in their blog. The blog post also contains links to five discussions on the Linden Lab forums to discuss various aspects. As a business professional, too often I encounter the perception of Second Life (and other virtual worlds) as being inherently attached to adult content. The natural

Using Virtual Worlds: Enslave or Empower?

2009-02-12T01:19:00.004-05:00

The ultimate question for this century, I believe, is: "Will we control technology or will technology control us?" It's the theme of many modern philosophers and a great deal of novelists and filmmakers, especially in the science fiction genre.Ultimately, technology does neither, at least, until it becomes sentient. Technology is just a proxy for our control over one another. My laptop allows me

SLim: Why Isn't Every SLr Using It?

2009-02-10T11:37:00.003-05:00

So, a couple days ago I installed SLim. It lets me do text and voice chat with anyone on my avatar's buddy list, without having to be logged into Second Life's browser. This is nice, especially since on my computer with a good video card and dual-processor and 2gb of RAM, I'm using up over half a gig of RAM, 1 meg of bandwidth, and the entirety of one of my CPUs when I run Second Life.The client

Virtual Worlds, Game Worlds, and User Created Worlds

2009-01-27T11:38:00.011-05:00

DefinitionsMetaverse: An interconnected set of virtual worlds and media where data and identity can move from one place seamlessly into another. This includes 3-D, 2-D, social networks, text and instant messaging, and game-worlds.Virtual World: A world that exists on computers and accessed by multiple users simultaneously.Virtual World Platform: A software platform where the primary or third

Linden Lab Buys 3rd Party Virtual Goods Sales Sites: What does this mean?

2009-01-21T12:11:00.006-05:00

(disclaimer at bottom)I just received notice today that Linden Lab, makers of Second Life, have acquired two competing third-party virtual goods sales websites. The sites, X-Street (formerly SLExchange until Linden Lab changed their trademark policy) and OnRez (formerly SLBoutique until Electric Sheep Company purchased it and rebranded it.)Here's the link to the press release.So what does this

Sony to Keynote the VW Conf --- erm, Engage! Expo

2009-01-20T14:26:00.004-05:00

No offense, Chris Sherman, but Sony PlayStation Home Director Jack Buser? As your keynote? The only rationale I can see in that choice is "ZOMG SONY IS A BIG NAME COMPANY!"Otherwise, every other colleague and blogger I've read and/or talked to has agreed:Sony Home sucks. It's an utter waste of time and, according to multiple reports, it's an unsafe place for females to be.Oh, and "Engage" as a

Worlds.com: We're as big jerks as Blackboard

2008-12-29T23:17:00.010-05:00

I just read this - it's a couple weeks stale.So, the US Patent office allows *another* stinker: Worlds.com apparently now has the patent for "a highly scalable architecture for a three-dimensional graphical, multi-user, interactive virtual world system." - as well as other patents. Basically, they appear to be laying claim on all virtual worlds. Kind of the same way Blackboard was awarded the

2008 Virtual World Predictions in Review

2008-12-27T22:41:00.007-05:00

1. More than one virtual world in Beta now: vaporware and/or go-nowhere-ware.Incorrect.Metaplace is moving forward in Beta, with progress. Vastpark and Multiverse, the same. Unype just got funding. However, Google Lively was born *and* went bust. I feel that should count, even though it wasn't yet in Beta - who would have thought it had such a short lifespan. Several other kids ones are small,

GraphJam Win

2008-12-14T21:01:00.002-05:00

http://digg.com/comedy/A_client_can_have_their_projectnGraphjam win! High ratings + 8 diggs (so far.)This is, no joke, one of my philosophies with clients. They are free to take their pick. :)more music chartsDigg / Vote if you'd like :)

Putting the User Into History: US Holocaust Memorial Museum virtual Kristallnacht Exhibit

2008-12-05T10:42:00.003-05:00

The latest project from my company, Involve, Inc, is a virtual exhibit of "The Night of Broken Glass" - Kristallnacht. For those unfamiliar with this, it's the 1938 pogrom in Germany when violence toward Jews spilled out into the public and became open and systematic. We worked with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum to create an interactive, multimedia-rich exhibit with Second Life to showcase

Pre-Update Teaser

2008-12-03T10:07:00.002-05:00

This Friday Involve, Inc, will have another new project releasing, and we are proud of the results. I'll have a press release and description then.In the meantime, I'll leave you with me celebrating getting a photo on failblog. :)see more pwn and owned picturesCheck it out!

Christmas and X-Mas: Trademarking a Religion?

2008-11-24T09:18:00.006-05:00

Okay, as a disclaimer, this article's meant just as a rant against vapid holiday consumerism and as a thought-experiment; I have this grave feeling that I'm in store for flaming comments, anyway. *shrug*Let's trademark Christmas!This may take some time to explain my reasoning, so bear with me. In the meantime, I'll state my overriding idea: Perhaps a technological solution exists to the

Lively: I told you so

2008-11-20T13:44:00.004-05:00

Google Says: Lively is DeadAnd, I told you so.Making an IMVU clone when you're gigantic monolithic company Google? Try harder.So, I wonder, thinking back about the hype announcements that RRR and MoU made. Looks like they were, as suspected, just hype. While Millions of Us almost always follows through with its hype with events and builds that get good user turnout, for Rivers Run Red, this is

2 Videos of 7 Days

2008-11-18T10:24:00.006-05:00

Last week Involve's CEO, Drew Stein, gave SLCN's Real Biz show a tour of 7 Days Magic Bakery. The destination is a build we did with Vivartia that we opened last month, and we're very proud of the results.It's a fairly thorough tour, so it's a big file and I won't embed it, but here's a link.I will, however, embed our own promo video that The Ill Clan made with us:

For the love of sci-fi, it's NOT A HOLOGRAM!

2008-11-11T23:47:00.003-05:00

I just had to say this, after seeing Wired.com jump on the bandwagon of using CNN's election green screen video FX as some example of a "hologram".FOR THE LOVE OF ALL SCI-FI, A HOLOGRAM IS NOT A GREEN SCREEN IMAGE!CNN was stupid to call their thing a "hologram". A hologram meant that a three dimensional image was IN THE SAME ROOM as the viewer, namely, Wolf Blitzer. No, it was really, really

Wired Misses the Point (Again): Metaverse Identity Crisis, Part 3

2008-11-10T10:51:00.007-05:00

So, I got around to reading my tree-killing edition of Wired over the weekend, and found an article "The New Reality" by Stephen Levy. Here's the less-tree-killing version . I applaud Steven for recognizing and praising trends in gaming and digital interface as they permeate slowly through our society. However, it became clear to me that while Levy understands fundamentally and clearly what's

Metaverse Identity Crisis, Part 2: Who's On Your Virtual World Panel?

2008-10-27T23:55:00.005-04:00

The public, advertisers, and many developers all turn toward the proclaimed experts of PANELS to tell them what the Metaverse means and what we should be doing. We see a variety of ideas and beliefs and ways all guises as "immersive online interaction", a vague notion in need of serious explanation.The ExpertsThis past two years I've been astounded at who the new set of "experts" is with virtual

Play With Your Food (press release)

2008-09-17T18:44:00.001-04:00

7 Days Brand Launches Bakery Theme Park in Second Life (full press release with photos in PDF format) ATHENS (16 September, 2008) – The big European baked goods brand 7 Days enters virtual space this week as it opens the “7 Days Magic Bakery” themed village in the virtual community of Second Life. A rich, whimsical environment modeled with great detail in Maya and

Luddites and CERN: The End of the World is Nigh?

2008-09-08T14:34:00.003-04:00

So, there's a bunch of reports of people worried about CERN's Large Hadron Collider project. The statements include worries of black holes being formed that will swallow the earth, or strange matter that would convert the Earth to strange matter, or other basic chain reaction ideas.While, at first thought, this principle seems kind of plausible in the "well, we made the atomic bomb" sense. And

Google's Lively Virtual World: "A Flop"?

2008-08-22T11:01:00.004-04:00

I just read an article in The Economist online about Google's new virtual world, Lively.So, I decided to log in and check it out for myself.The system is basically an IMVU-clone, small chat rooms for a couple dozen users, tops. Some obvious nice things that I noticed right away:- Quick download of plug-in, runs right in your web browser- Quick login, uses your Google ID.- Easy to choose and

Second Life Blues Performer Signed to Label

2008-08-15T10:08:00.004-04:00

From Rolling Stone's "Rock and Roll Daily" blog.EDIT: Original source, Wired OnlineSo, I'm surprised it took this long. In fact, reading the article, I saw this interesting statement: "The company’s scouts spent months on Second Life searching for talent before discovering Van Johin’s virtual venue Blue Note Club."I have to wonder ... did they just take forever learning to use Second Life,

Metaverse Identity Crisis, Part 1: Virtual Worlds 08

2008-04-24T12:14:00.007-04:00

A couple weeks ago, I attended the Virtual Worlds 08 conference at the Javits Center in sunny Manhattan. Along with 1200 or so other people, I mingled among a variety of virtual world platform developers and third-party virtual world developers, both end-to-end solution providers like myself and more specialized, like CyberExtruder.Coming out of the conference, I had a good talk with my

Philip Rosedale @ Linden Lab: SL is a Game For People With A Lot of Time

2008-04-21T21:32:00.014-04:00

Alright, so, after reading this article on Reuters about a new CEO possibly coming to Linden Lab within weeks, it makes me all the more reassured that Linden Lab is going in the right direction.Philip Rosedale, soon-to-be-former-CEO and soon-to-be-Chairperson of Linden Lab, reiterated the future growth of Second Life, and went over the usual stuff.UNTIL:----Asked to explain the appeal of Second

Philip Rosedale: One of Time's 100 Most Influential

2008-04-18T16:48:00.002-04:00

http://tinyurl.com/6hsgajFor the sake of giving attention to our industry, I suggest you click that link and upvote Philip Rosedale in Time's 100 Most Influential People of 2008. Make sure you slide it to 100 and click "Submit".

Arden: a Tragedy of Errors

2008-03-27T11:42:00.010-04:00

disclaimer: I want to make absolutely clear that I am not suggesting Multiverse is a bad platform. In fact, the whole goal of my article was to show how Arden *misrepresents* what Multiverse and virtual world technology can do.Shakespeare MMOG: No-BrainerSo let us say you are a grant officer at the MacArthur Foundation and you are approached by a well-reviewed professor who is renown for being

Rosedale Quits CEO, Kapor's Vision, The Problem with Second Life, and The Future

2008-03-20T01:32:00.001-04:00

Kapor and Rosedale: VisionariesIf you live under a rock: Philip Rosedale was the founder of Linden Lab, creator of Second Life, the first popular online 3-D virtual metaworld. Before Second Life, Rosedale made a bunch of money coding some streaming stuff for Real. Mitch Kapor founded Lotus back in the 80s, whose software was considered the first "killer app" and quite literally aided the world

Comic About The Holocaust: Good Idea / Bad Idea

2008-02-22T03:46:00.012-05:00

WARNING: If you are easily offended by nazi symbols: I use an image in this post that contains some, to prove a point. I only use the image to illustrate that something as important as remembering the Holocaust for the tragedy it was can be undermined when people don't how to properly use a medium. If the idea of seeing nazi symbols in any context is offensive to you, please close this page on

Get Twitter Updates Tracking Any Subject

2008-02-20T15:27:00.003-05:00

Did you know that if you type "track ________" in twitter, (no quotes) where the blank is a keyword/phrase, you will get Twitter updates with anything of that subject.I didn't either.I stumbled into it while twittering about Mike Doughty's newest album, Golden Delicious, which rocks. I mean, really rocks. I was commenting about individual tracks, and hence, I bumped into an odd confirmation

Politicians Should E-mail Constituents

2008-02-10T15:27:00.000-05:00

Okay, here's the deal. I'm sitting in a tea shop in NoHo, NYC, with my good pals Bill and Melody talking philosophy and politics, and we were talking about e-mail we got from the Obama campaign that we've gotten, and it hit me.Why don't *elected* officials e-mail me? I'm sure some do; Melody pointed out that she is on a list for Hillary, since she represents New York City in the Senate. And I

Which Candidates are Technology Friendly?

2008-02-06T17:20:00.001-05:00

I considered whether or not I should have posted this post before the Super Tuesday primary elections, but considered how close the race still is, I think it's just as important - if not more - to talk about this issue now. This will affect many of you readers as, chances are, if you're reading my blog, how politics affects technology is very important. The US government allows non-elected people

Griefers: Why Dibbell's Wired Article Was 1-Sided

2008-02-02T14:25:00.000-05:00

Disclaimer: Wired Magazine's former presence in Second Life was established by a competing company.Counter-disclaimer: I have a subscription to Wired and enjoy reading it every month, as well as occaisionally online.Additional disclaimer: The overwhelming majority of members of sites such as SomethingAwful, /b/, and 4Chan are indeed just looking for funny things online. Only a small percentage

How Tenuous Our Infrastructure Is

2008-01-31T11:00:00.001-05:00

Asia's got Internet problems, and it's not just the Chinese government's unwillingness to let go of their ancient censorship practices. No, apparently what happens when an undersea Mediterranean cable is cut is that "large swathes of Asia, the Middle East and north Africa had their high-technology services crippled". (CNN story here.) Curious, I decided to check out Internet Traffic Report.Here's

I want to do a webcomic

2008-01-31T02:50:00.001-05:00

I guess it comes with being a geek. I'd like to think of it as taking after Ben Franklin or Da Vinci or Einstein or other great scientists who had worked on many different interests within their lifetimes. But, there I was earlier today, sitting at dinner with a pal, and it occured to me that I ought to write a web comic.Only, I don't have the time to do the artwork. I'm not a great artist, but I

Mitch Kapor: Facial Expressions for the win!

2008-01-30T00:26:00.001-05:00

Go listen to this immediately! Adam Pasick from Reuters interviews Second Life board chairman and software visionary Mitch Kapor. The first and biggest topic? He's working with someone to prototype a new camera that will map facial / body expressions onto Second Life avatars via the Open Source viewer....You know, something I've been talking about for 2 years? Something that Stephenson got down

Identity in a New Era

2008-01-22T02:23:00.000-05:00

Steam of consciousness is not the easiest thing to read, I admit, and I apologize for this in advance. But today I had allergies act up and my nose has been running like a faucet so sleep is sort of out of the question until the combination of my body and some OTC meds clear me up.Confession: I think non-stop. Stress makes me think deeper and harder, as well. Today I read a story on the BBC

Havok 4 arrives in SL. No, seriously. For real!

2008-01-22T00:26:00.000-05:00

My 2008 predictions are off to a good start.Once my sim's up I'll do a review from some tests.

The Tech Exhibit Construction: Day 4 and 5

2008-01-18T17:46:00.000-05:00

I'm catching up here, I know!Day 4Thursday was a fairly productive day on our Music Orbits project for The Tech. (See previous entries for background.) Thursday Ian focused on creating the actual physical model, a Jules Verne-eseque mechanical device that is plausible in real life. Meanwhile, I focused and successfully completed a basic knob-style grabber control for the planets.Part of my work

The Tech Exhibit Construction: Day 3

2008-01-17T17:31:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, Ian was down with a migraine, so I pretty much spent the time by myself with a handful of people watching and chatting. I scripted up the basics to moving the planet around in an orbit.While Ian was away, I had Bryan Campen stop by, at my request. Bryan's worked with some interesting interactive art in Second Life, and with ambient music (a la Brian Eno). He had some advice about the

The Tech Exhibit Construction: Day 2

2008-01-16T13:05:00.000-05:00

Fresh off Monday's progress, we delved into starting to play around with some of the specific interactions that users might do with the exhibit. We scripted a cube that would play a sound based on its height and gave that out, so that attendees could experiment with that relationship.This may or may not make it to the final set of interactions, but I found it interesting controlling an aspect of