Just a couple of interesting surfing finds from the weekend that I wanted to post… mainly because I surfed through them at the same time and was struck by their similarities. Above is a detail image from one of Chris Garofalo’s nice ceramic pieces that are showcased over on Metropolis.

The image above is a screencap from one of 1st Avenue Machine’s very cool little animations which you can check out on their website. They’re not long, load quickly and are fun to watch (they’re worksafe, too). Enjoy.

{Top Image Copyright © Chris Garofalo; Bottom Image Copyright © 1st Avenue Machines}

This comment made me do a double-take this morning:

The great struggle for respect in society and in the corporate world is over. Design has won. It doesn’t have to sell itself. It does have to prove itself, however.

Wow. Can somebody get Bruce’s announcement out to all the companies who:

a) believe design is 2D graphics
b) believe design is making products prettier
c) believe anyone using CAD is designing
d) believe retail buyers are by default capable designers
e) believe media stars with opinions are automatically good designers
f) believe innovative thinking can be taught to anyone in a few short weeks
g) believe design is great until they find a cheaper way to execute and can undercut the competition without it.

Oh. And please send a telegram to some of my clients as well – there are some battles still raging even though the war is apparently over. I guess that would include companies that:

h) give lip-service to design because they can’t get more costs out of their product and are desperately looking for an advantage over their competition; even if it’s just using the word “design” in their press releases

or

i) like the idea of being designers so much they now bestow the professional identifier – warranted or not – to almost everyone in their organization. Remember the Fast Company “all-design” issue I mentioned previously? The one that included comments like,

If you’re in any business, you’re in the design business. We’re all designers now.

and

…we’ve mapped the essential designer fashion strategy, so that anyone — even Larry in accounting — can look hip, creative, and somehow more interesting…

That’s the kind of thing to which I’m referring.

Seems to me, that a few things have to happen before “victory” can be claimed. And one of those things is that design has to prove itself. So while I might agree with the comments on the awards, I just wish I could agree with some of the supporting remarks. I don’t. As far as I’m concerned, it’s deja vu all over again. Don’t lay down your weapons just yet.

{Edit: I posted a topic on the Core77 design forum to discuss this, so you might want to see what one community has to say.}

I was there last night just prior to it hitting. Unable to log on to Second Life and watching as the forum posts tracking its progress sim by sim piled up in the Hotline. There was plenty of information posted on the attack; sufficient to make it apparent this was nothing all that specular… just a spawning script deliberately unleashed (this isn’t new, and even the Second Life programming Wiki discusses this sort of thing). Consequently, I wasn’t even going to post about it. Why give griefers the satisfaction? None the less, it does appear to be getting what I consider underserved attention (the kind a bawling child frequently demands).

So, why bother posting this entry now? Because if nothing else, this does point out that the chain is only as strong as the weakest (and most immature) link. So until real life consequences come with this behavior, we can expect it to continue. Let’s see if Linden Lab nips this kind of behavior in the bud once and for all; let’s see if they file real world charges and prosecute. Because so long as people write about these things, there will be children crying for attention.

This isn’t new. The U.S. Postal Service tried this a while back, discovered that some people wanted to put naughty things on stamps, and promptly shut the service down (I think they called it a “trial”; good save guys!). After some subsequent buzz surrounding other postal customization services, they apparently took notice and restarted their own service, and before long vendor Photostamps popped up in the news offering custom stamps.

That’s now month’s-old ancient history. But surfing over to Yahoo’s homepage just now I was hit with an ad for their service and thought I’d call attention to it… as if I need to do that, the ad is pretty in-your-face. I’m guessing Yahoo is working directly with the USPS, so I feel kinda bad for the Photostamp people. I’d imagine Yahoo is going to pwn them in short order. And what a clever way to get people using their image hosting services.

None of this of course is to be confused with the We Stamp U service (a German company that provides custom-stamped postcards and who iirc extended their service to the U.S. prior to the USPS service restart). But I wonder if the We Stamp U folks have figured out that they need to offer something more custom. After all, which would you prefer: putting your custom stamp on your own mail, or having your custom stamp only on a limited range of post cards? I need to keep an eye on them and see how they adjust.

What a nice use for virtual world technology. Sue Stonebender (aka CBC syndicated columnist Sue Braiden) officially opened her Second Life island, A Better World, for business last night. And the business at hand is finding ways to leverage the social connectivity of 3D simulations to address global social issues of concern to her and those within her network.

Sue (shown above addressing guests, including, I believe, Pam and Pierre Omidyar) has been working diligently on creating a space which – if I’m not mistaken – is primarily intended to host virtual conferences addressing a variety issues; to bring people together to discuss everything from AIDs in Africa to abolishing the death penalty. It’s an inspiring and worthwhile effort.

One cool example of what’s being done is a virtual gallery of art created by African children afflicted with AIDs. I’m unsure how the images get from the children to the virtual world (I’ve asked but not yet received an answer, perhaps Sue will see this blog entry and inform us all), but the tiles have embedded links to websites that provide additional information for those interested in learning more about the dire situation in Africa. Without doubt one of the best ways to motivate people to act is to educate them. If a picture is worth a thousand words, hopefully an immersive space requires no words at all.