I just got back from "The Great Mall" in Milpitas, California. Nice mall — not GREAT — but nice. I was thinking as I wandered from store to store how little I really need or even want to buy nowadays. The goal of merchants is to convince the consumer that they "need" or "must have"…
Category: Virtual Worlds
Virtual movie-going – is this the SL killer app?
In my teens in the 80s, I remember reading a book of futurist essays, one of which talked about how much more interactive traditional media was going to become in the next decade. The example the author talked about was a 3D projection of the TV show "M*A*S*H" which the user could participate in as…
“SL: the Official Guide” — good for n00bs, light on the tech
I finished reading Second Life: The Official Guide last night. I am perhaps not a good guage of how good the book is, since I’ve already drunk the Linden kool-aid. That said, I found it to be an entertaining and informative read from cover to cover. My only real complaint is that it’s not longer….
Where do undead avatars go?
With the recent passing of a Second Life resident, I have been wondering what happens to an avatar and its possessions when the person who owns it passes away? Apparently, according to the TOS, if you have a will that specifies who should be given possession of your avatar, Linden Labs honors that: Linden Lab…
Jammin with Blatmore Giles / J. Walter Hawkes tonight!
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…
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…
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…