Here’s something I found yesterday after discovering I had to have an account to get code for posting YouTube videos here. After registering I decided to do a quick search on “virtual” and found a demo for vCrib (Link), a virtual interface for real homes. It’s an open source project and seems like something that could find itself integrated into Second Life or Croquet or maybe even Hive7.

There’s an older video on YouTube, but there’s a newer one on PutFile (Link).

{Image Copyright (c) 2006 Archonian Aspirations}

Yesterday I happened across a post by Heather Green over on BusinessWeek‘s Blogspotting site, “On Updike and the Future of Books” (Link), and having read most of the Kelly article to which she refers, caught wind of Updike’s comments, and given the same topic plenty of thought on my own (most recently due to my interaction with the ISHUSH blog – I gave an interview(!) for it prior to the Kelly New York Time‘s article which included some of the same observations… digital books make good kirkyans), I couldn’t help but leave a rather long comment. If you’ve read this blog even occasionally over the past year, you won’t be surprised by what I wrote on the BW blog. The thing is, Ms. Green’s concerns have been my concerns for years.
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There always seems to be “how-to” pages popping up, especially now with Make: magazine galvanizing the do-it/make-it/invent-it-yourself crowd. One recent website that I caught over on Boing Boing has probably gotten lots of exposure, but it’s worth pointing to here: a page on how to make analog watches (Link). I’ll look at that more closely when I have the time not to need a watch. It’s the second one, however, that really piqued my interest.

Last year some time I suggested to the guys at Core77 that there should be a “Toy Design” section of the design forum. They obliged and as I was involved in both its creation, forum moderation and convincing(?) fellow CIA alum Todd Herlitz (who runs a small ID studio near Chicago) to moderate that forum area, I posted a few initial threads to get it started. One thread was simply titled “Vinyl Toys” (link) and it recently received a nice necropost pointing to an indie toy maker’s DIY page (Link).

The above image is one of Figurepunk’s offerings and is the subject of that how-to. So if you want to read up on some really low-end mass production work, be sure to stop over and maybe even buy one of them – they’re pretty cheap compared to the stuff I usually see for sale. The only thing I wonder is whether there are options to use other, eco-friendly materials. Something to research… right before I no longer need a watch.

{Image Copyright © FiGUREPUNK 2004-06}

There’s a slow thread over on the Core77 forum (Link) I’ve been visiting occasionally. It may not move very fast, but the comments that are coming are worth noting.

The thing was virtually dead when a couple of PLM vendors started plugging their (limited) wares – Paxonix and Design2Launch. Hit and run stuff. However, it’s the most recent posting by “pier” to which I want to call attention. Here’s one sentence that hit home for me:

I have worked with companies using Primavera, JDEdwards, MatrixOne, SAP, PLMWorks, Enovia, IMAN, etc. All were grossly problematic, universally despised more than any work tool, bad boss or environment. All companies had stupendous, costly installation, training and familiarization time periods, averaging 2 – 3 years from acquisition. In fact, every company had a customized version of their PLM installation as no one package solution was adequate. In some cases, the customization was by independant third party contract as the PLM software company disagreed or disapproved or had exclusive integration agreements with other software companies different than what the company was using.

This sounds like my experience using PTC’s Windchill back in 2001. It also sounds quite a lot like some game development software out there.
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From nanofactories to nano-bacteria factories… or something. New Scientist has a story (Link) about bacteria creating what are effectively electrically-conducting nanowires. This is pretty wild stuff. For some reason, the scene from Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” comes to mind, only instead of a bunch of workers I’m seeing a bunch of bacteria. So long as they don’t form a union.

via Boing Boing

{Image source: New Scientist/Rizlan Bencheikh and Bruce Arey}