After a full weekend, I came home this evening to find a message from my friend Gigi Giles, telling me that her husband, awesome jazz trombonist J. Walter Hawkes, was playing in Second Life with his trio! I ‘ported over there as fast as the series of tubes could carry me to find J. Walter…
Month: December 2006
Remembering Bettina (1969-1995)
Yesterday was the anniversary of the death of my old girlfriend Bettina Erika Pruckmayr, who was killed during a botched mugging on December 16, 1995 in Washington DC. She was a tireless and passionate fighter for human rights who was one of the first of our generation to devote her career to the cause of…
Cindy and Rik’s Second Life (video)
Here’s a silly holiday video I created in Second Life to go along with a greeting card Cindy and I have been sending around to our friends. It’s pretty much our entire life re-created virtually, including our various crafts, food obsession, dancing, and lots and lots of cats. You can download a higher res version…
Why you should go to the Nat’l Conference on Media Reform in Memphis this January
There are lots of great reasons why you should plan on attending the National Conference on Media Reform from January 12-14, 2007. Here’s ten: It’s in Memphis. You know, Graceland, barbeque, home of the blues It only happens every two years Hang out with 3,000 media activists, bloggers, researchers, policy-makers, journalists and artists Come to…
Swingin Holiday Music that doesn’t suck
Around this time, the holiday music starts invading every public space, from elevators to restaurants to dance clubs. At swing dance clubs around the country, DJs are making innocent dancers have to endure countless "holiday mixes" of jazzy versions of "Here Comes Santa Claus," "Frosty the Snowman," and worst of all "Jingle Bells." Shudder. So…
Two million < cough cough > “residents” of Second Life
Ahem… I see two million "residents" of Second Life listed on the front page. I will let others conjecture about how many of these are simply victim of the "try me" virus.
First thoughts on “Second Life: the Official Guide”
I needed to cash out an old B&N gift certificate, so I just got a copy of the new Second Life: The Official Guide. Just superficially, the paperbound book looks great. The overall palette is a calming forest green. Full color screenshots thoughout the book pop out as you flip through it. On the margins…
The REAL skinny on the ICANN Second Life build
Apparently I should have checked my sources more clearly before posting yesterday’s piece about ICANN taking over the virtual world. I should have suspected the press release was phoney when I noticed that it came from a vintcerf@icann.xxx. My bad. It goes to show that not everything you read on the internets is true. Anyway,…
ICANN announces that it now controls the virtual world as well as the web
In a surprise announcement at the ICANN Board Meeting in Sao Paolo, Brazil, Vint Cerf, chair of the ICANN Board, declared that the US-based agency responsible for the web’s domain system was now taking charge of assigned names and locations in the virtual world. Mr. Cerf is expected to be holding a virtual press briefing…
Real World Places in Second Life #12: Virtual Morocco!
I just ran across an amazing new build called "Virtual Morocco" on the Casablanca sim (teleport SLURL). Created as an initiative of faculty and students at Johnson and Wales University in partnership with the Moroccan ministry of tourism, Virtual Morocco is one of the most immersive real world places in Second Life that I’ve ever…