Nice little opinion piece by Elinor Mills over on C|Net, “Want to ‘converse’ with advertisers? Me neither” (Link) that’s worth a read. It brought to mind Henry Ford’s famous line about color options on early model T’s. I mean, who do they think they’re kidding?

Give Federated Media credit though, at least they seem to have something to discuss. In a follow-up interview (Link), Frank Rose, author of a Wired article that got the Second Life community perhaps a bit too upset, he volunteers a couple of worthwhile quips suggesting that not all marketers even know what to say: Continue reading →

Couple of interesting bits today. Over on C|Net there’s nanotech-related news. In “IBM prints with molecules” (Link) we have a follow-on by what sounds like the same group of scientists to an earlier demonstration of a nano-scale “mass production” process. From the article:

The pattern on the solid substrate then can be exploited in a number of ways, according to Heiko Wolf, researcher in nano-patterning at the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory. It can be used to mass-produce patterns.
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Sooner than expected, Reuters/Second Life is reporting (Link) on OpenSim‘s success in emulating Linden Lab’s server system.

Some of you are aware that Linden Lab open sourced pieces of the back end a couple of weeks ago. And of course they’ve been discussing making the server code open source for some time (the client is already open source). It appears, however, that their remaining timetable might possibly be influenced by Adam Frisby and friends.

Probably not, though. I suspect some of the recent changes to LL’s system aren’t reflected in the OpenSim effort… yet. I would, however, be happy to be surprised. The sooner the whole system goes open source the sooner I’ll know if my thoughts regarding Linden Lab’s future business plan are correct.

With so much going on in the virtual worlds arena, the next year is going to be especially interesting.

via Virtual Worlds News

As I’ve been away for much of the past week, I’m not sure how much attention these two videos have received, but I want to call them out in the event people haven’t seen them.

Spore “Leipzig” Trailer (Link) – I preferred the simpler look from earlier videos, but the creation tools still amaze me. Looking forward to any news regarding a fab-on-demand store so people can 3D print their critters.
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There are a few interesting articles out there for the Industrial Designers that surf through this blog. Over on BusinessWeek there’s “Wanted: VPs of Design” (Link) that’s worth taking the time to read. Compare and contrast that article with Michael Bierut’s piece “You’re So Intelligent” (Link) on the Design Observer.
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