My buddy Jeff Porten sends along this choice "news" item from the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s April 1st newsletter: NSA to Open Virtual "Black Box" Office in Second Life The National Security Agency announced today plans to open a virtual office in the popular online game Second Life. The office will consist of a large black…
J. Walter on the accident that made him a jazz musician
I got news that my buddy jazz trombonist J. Walter Hawkes was featured on the NPR show "Studio 360" a couple of days ago, talking about the near fatal accident that transformed him into a jazz musician. Here’s the direct link to the audio stream (or just click on the image). There’s also a much…
Serenity authorized blueprints available soon
I just got word that Quantum Mechanix Inc will be offering what looks like a beautiful set of of blueprints of the spaceship "Serenity" from the movie of the same name. I gotta admit I get a little goosebumpy just looking at the images. Reminds of the giant cutaway poster I had of the Starship…
Second Life and the limits of religious tolerance
Doing my duty as event guy at New World Notes, I’ve been noticing that there are lots and lots of events being sponsored by a new Hare Krishna group in SL. Which has made me wonder, what are the limits of religious tolerance in Second Life?
My interview on Pacifica Radio Program “Deadline LA”
I did a short interview that was broadcast today on the KPFK Pacifica Radio program "Deadline LA" hosted by Barbara Osborn and Howard Blume. The whole program is very interesting, dealing with YouTube and human rights abuses. From the description: Is YouTube the new forum for human rights abuses? Could be. A Guantanamo detainee was…
Chat log from in-world Obama event today
Some folks asked for the chat log of the Obama in-world "appearance" today. So here it is, with some of the extraneous "lol" and side comments not included. I hope it’s helpful to someone.
Pics from Obama’s SL appearance today
US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama appeared in SL today on SoHo island, with the help of ForeFront Media… sort of. In reality, someone was puppeteering his avatar while an audio stream played his live webcast. I took some pics of his nicely designed avatar and some crowd shots. Enjoy.
Short video of Obama appearance in SL today
Click To Play An avatar of Barack Obama appeared in Second Life today (March 31) as part of his national webcast of a "living room" conversation with supporters. Nice looking avatar, and interesting to experience the stream with a bunch of other Americans and others from around the world. (Click here for more pics.) I…
wii + Second Life = mad sweet
I got a chance to play with the Gideon May’s wiimote controller hack for Second Life at the Metaverse Meetup last night in the East Village. I must admit, I squealled like a 12-year old girl while I was playing with it. According to 3PointD, over the last couple of days, Gideon hacked together a…
Bleeding edge tech confronts the oldest human problem
This quote from legendary American journalist Edward R. Murrow has been bouncing around my head the past few days: The newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem in the relations between human beings, and in the end the communicator will be confronted with the old problem, of what to say and how…