It’s a Material World

Here are a few non-virtual world things I wanted to mention.

  • Canon has recently announced via press release (PDF – Link) that they’ll be shipping a new 3D printer based on 3D Systems’ V-Flash (reLink). I caught this bit of news over on CGTalk (Link). This is a particularly interesting development as it brings a huge multi-national into the game. Can others not be far behind?
  • Over the past few days I’ve been trading messages with Tom Meeks, the guy who posted news of the Canon printer and who blogs over at the 3D Printer Users blog (Link). Those messages are essentially captured in a comment of his (Link) over on a CG Talk thread discussing the Desktop Factory machine (Link) – which I’ve followed but previously mentioned only in passing.
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  • An Interface for “Void Rock”

    This is vaguely familiar, but it seems to be another video I missed while drowning in work on Virtual Laguna Beach last year. For those who’ve seen it already, hopefully this is just a pleasant reminder to keep your eye out for this thing since the “reactable” is starting to show up in concert (YouTube Link).

    I found this particular video over on the Ghostfooting blog (Link) and thought I’d post my comment here as well:

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    Virtuality Seeps Into The Mainstream

    If I hadn’t been looking at online real estate and related news last night, I’d have missed an interview with Coldwell Banker representatives Charlie Young and David Siroty over on… of all things… Mortgage News Daily (Link). Interesting to see ideas – which not so long ago received blank stares from most everyone – seep into the cultural mainstream. Here’s a piece of the article:

    We interviewed Charlie Young, Senior Vice President, Marketing and David Siroty, Director of Public Relations, Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation about the corporation’s decision to take a stake in Second Life.
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    Linden Lab Delivering Attention Metrics

    Normally I don’t post about Linden Lab publishing their “Key Metrics”. Not only because it generates plenty of coverage and discussion elsewhere, but because I’ve long found some of the metrics lacking… and by “long” I mean well before an under-informed Clay Shirky jumped in and made them sound worse than they were (for reference – reLink). However, Linden Lab is enhancing the data they already provide in what I believe is an important way. From the official Linden Lab blog (Link): Continue reading

    Photosynth Ripple Effects

    I’d previously read about Microsoft Live Labs’ Photosynth, but up until now those articles only provided accompanying images. Basically the way I understand this is that while Google is going around with customized data-collection trucks documenting the world and assembling the pieces for everyone, Microsoft is essentially crowdsourcing/ outsourcing the work to netizens and letting the pieces self-assemble.
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