I’m a sucker for a beautiful sailing vessel. Between my aerospace background (air is a fluid, just in case you didn’t know) and my years as a ship driver, engineer and navigator, it’s a wonder I don’t post more on their design. Be that as it may, I found this sleek little number, a “hydro-foil sailing yacht” called eXplorius, while surfing around looking for something inspirational. Luckily there’s more than just the above picture; the site on which it can be found (Link) includes concept sketches and CG renders. Nice.

via Core77

{Image Copyright (c) Arnold Freidling}

There’s been plenty of talk over the past few days about Linden Lab’s “Contingency Plan” (Link) and some of the information that’s come out of Linden Lab as a result. I’ve been reading the posts over on 3pointD (3pDLink 1, 3pDLink 2) and Clickable Culture (CCLink 1, CCLink 2), but generally I’m not overly surprised at this development, as signs of strain on the SL grid have been increasingly apparent.
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Here’s a bit more on the relationship between product design and advertising. The MIT Advertising Lab blog is carrying an entry (Link) that links product design more closely with advertising. No surprise that the firm in question is IDEO. And no surprise that I’m hearing more on this development. You might recall my earlier mention of this trend (or should I call it an “increasing realization of an inherent truth”) in my mention of a Brand Noise interview with Marc Gobé (reLink). Both are worth reading.

I first mentioned the Euphoria technology last year (reLink). The recent video I posted (reLink) reminded me of it, so I decided to go looking for more and found what appears to be an early tech demo for “Endorphin”, the code that may have evolved into Euphoria. Even in rough form it’s amazing. I was watching this and thinking how my comments earlier this month to Jerry Paffendorf, about machinima being the next big thing, were more true than I imagined at the time.
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A few weeks back on Terra Nova (Link) I first learned of a virtual worlds/Second Life-centric blog-based discussion that emerged from the recent debates surrounding Second Life. The “synchronized punditry”, as Terra Novan Liz Lawley dubbed it, included Beth Coleman, Henry Jenkins and Clay Shirky. Having gone a few rounds with Shirky over on Terra Nova, I opted out of chiming in on this conversation. Instead I decided to wait and then summarize the three primary positions and add my own thoughts.
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