BusinessWeek has an interesting article and slideshow on Philips. Lots of interesting stuff, but I have to admit the article seemed to have a lot of bad news contained within it… and they didn’t even mention Philips’ failed attempt to break into the U.S. small appliance market (through Target if memory serves me). Don’t get me wrong: I admire Philips and really like their products. But will someone clue them in that Marzano using the term “High Design” doesn’t win them any points (heaven forbid he actually coined the term). Elitist slogans – which is how it sounds regardless of whether it means something else – isn’t going to help them sell to an increasingly democratized world. And I’d like to see them sell more of their cool little products.

{Image Source: BusinessWeek}

C|Net is carrying a Reuters story about Iranians incensed over Kuma Reality Games latest real world events-inspired game simulation, “U.S. attacks Iran“. Keith Halper, CEO of Kuma, spoke inside the virtual world Second Life a few months back. Afterward there seemed to be a fair number of disappointed avatars in the audience; most – apparently including Clickable Culture’s Tony Walsh who covered it on his site – complained that the bulk of his presentation felt like an infomercial (you can listen to an mp3 of the presentation and form your own opinion). I didn’t mind his presentation so much, but thought this part of the Reuters story was pretty funny:

“The controversy does surprise me. I just didn’t expect that there were people from Iran who were going to become aware of it,” he told Reuters.

Does he actually think anyone believes him when he says that? C’mon, dude. It’s the internet. It’s g l o b a l.

Considering so many real world conflicts are rooted in money, it certainly appears as if there really isn’t much difference between meatspace and virtual space. It’s all about the money. And Kuma certainly doesn’t seem concerned if they all bleed together (pun intended). Besides, next thing you know, avatars will be setting up metaverse corporations and using the virtual profits to fund political protests in cyberspace over real world issues. Actually, I suspect it’s already happening.

Considering that my background includes degrees in both aerospace engineering and industrial design, this plug for the latest exhibition at the Pratt Manhatten Gallery in NYC, “Aerospace Design: The Art of Engineering from NASA’s Aeronautical Research“, shouldn’t come as a surprise. Pratt president Thomas F. Schutte has this to say about the show:

As an exploration of the connections between industrial design, architecture, engineering, and technology, this show emphasizes the significance of interdisciplinary thinking in creating innovative design solutions.

If you’re in the NYC area, the show goes through December 17, 2005, so you might want to check it out.

via arcspace

{Image Source: NASA}

Big surprise yesterday. Normally I’m flooded with visits from zombie PC’s attempting to post trackback spam, but last night while reviewing the log, I realized there were no visits from these guys. All the probes containing spam “referal” sites simply vanished yesterday… after months of fruitless attempts to have their say (I went back some time ago and modified the settings on each blog entry to turn off both comments and trackbacks – I now leave them on temporarily for a day or two).

So did the Zombie Master update his Attack List? Did the Feds take down the operation? Or did the splog zombies finally get a day off? Whatever happened, I’m happy.

After the virtual nuke that hit Second Life last night it was easy to connect the dots for something we might want to expect shortly down the road: EM Griefing (EM = electromagnetic). That incident was the first dot. In this case, the second dot is this report I just read over on JoyStiq that Microsoft’s new XBox 360 console may be causing Wal*Mart’s internal wireless system to bork. This vulnerability isn’t new, but now it’s waaaay out in the open in perhaps the worst way. Considering the buzz surrounding Robert Greenwald’s new movie “Wal*Mart – The High Cost of Low Price” (another “dot” perhaps), I’m going to venture that we’re going to see some real world griefing real soon. One doesn’t have to be too creative to suddenly realize that if you have a beef with the world’s biggest company (or even if you don’t), all you have to do is send them some 2.4GHz love and watch the fallout.

I think we’re about to see some virtual world behavior make it’s way back into the real world. Be on the lookout for people organizing via social websites and forming “Grief Clans” in their communities. Imagine such a clan infiltrating a Wal*Mart with personal electronics intended to screw up their wireless system. Stay tuned… just maybe not with a wireless.

{Update: Gamespot reported yesterday afternoon that Wal*Mart is unplugging XBox 360 kiosks due to interference with their wireless inventory system.}