Anyone remember this – the Trimersion head-mounted display (reLink)? Well, seems it’s now available for purchase. At US $395 it’s certainly worth taking the time to read the reviews when they become available, but for now you can check out the gallery over on the 3001AD website (Link).

Sure seems like it bloated though, doesn’t it? Too bad this doesn’t look more like Johnny’s goggles – the geometric wraparounds. Always thought those were pretty nice.

{Image Copyright © 3001AD LLC, 2006}

There’s an interesting Second Life story over on New World Notes titled “Need 4 Nissan” (Link) that’s worth taking the time to read. In it author Wagner James Au puts Nissan’s efforts in Second Life up against – who else – some Tuckerish guy from the American heartland. There’s no surprise in the implied outcome: Nissan doesn’t fair well.

I started writing a long entry about this but I don’t have the time to go into the kind of detailed analysis of the situation that I’d prefer. Perhaps next time. Because I’m sure there will be a next time.

(p.s. – There’s a hint of some of what I was thinking in the title to this post.)

This should be good news for lots of would-be virtual world developers. From the Multiverse developer forum (Link):

The Multiverse Open Beta platform release is now available. Register with the Multiverse Developer Program, and you will be able to access the downloads here:

I’ve been stopping in to the Multiverse forums on occasion lately hoping to catch that announcement, so for those who were also wondering when it would be made available, have at it. And if you’ve not registered, head there first – Registration Link.

Just a quick note to point you to a post on the Second Life Insider blog (Link) discussing the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s project inside the Second Life virtual space. Very cool. My father once worked for the NOAA – something to do with computers and satellite images – so I look forward to seeing him over the holidays and showing this to him.

{Image Copyright © 2006 Aimee Weber}

Back in 2002 when I left corporate life to become my own boss, hoping to move into a combination of real and virtual design (even though something like Second Life hadn’t even yet popped up on the radar), I didn’t realize that metaversal consulting would so completely occupy my time as it does now; finding myself swamped to the point of my not being able to spend more time pursuing the things Second Life makes possible. And while of no legitimate importance to anyone else, those things are at least important to me. Consequently, after delivering an important batch of files last Friday, I spent some time surfing around to see what others have been doing to bridge the transreality gap and that led me to John Hurliman’s blog entry “Exporting Prim Data From Second Life” (Link). Needless to say his post resonated with me on several counts, so I’ll be keeping tabs on his progress. It would be great to have a two-way connection between Second Life and Blender.