Category Archives: reTransmit

cool things I’ve learned from others directly or found online which hopefully relate to the core topics of the blog

Pearl Dolls

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pearldollW

Via Beverly Tang’s blog, I found a curious site called Pearl Children. I don’t read Japanese, but it appears to be part of a handmade doll movement (hey, I noticed that obvious “handmade doll webring” thing on the bottom; nothing gets past me). Though I’ve not heard of this before, it’s not surprising given the explosive popularity of niche items like the underground “designer” vinyl toy industry (just check out a site like www.kidrobot.com to see a good cross-section of that stuff).

What really has me wondering is whether this set of dolls is inspired in any way by the “suicide clubs” or whatever they’re called in Japan. I forget where I first heard of them, but given the zombified look of these dolls, it seems plausible. Makes me wonder what hybrid fusion of industrial design, art and anthropologic recorder we’re creating with all this technology. More importantly, it seems like an uncomfortable decision might sometimes have to be made: profit from something like these suicide clubs, or try to draw attention to them (in order to end the practice) and kill the cash cow. Interesting situation. And this site probably has nothing to do with that trend.

More Mainstream News of the Virtual

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I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m seeing ever increasing news articles covering virtual worlds. This latest one, over on C|Net, spends most of it’s time talking about Solipsis, manages to get a comment in on the OSMP, and includes Second Life (the article has links to all three). No comment on Croquet though which I mentioned two days ago and which seems much further along than Solipsis. Or any other projects I’ve come across, such as Kerry Bonin’s slowly developing VScape/VML project. Still, might be worth a read.

WorldChanging Notices Virtual Realities

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I’m a recent reader of the Worldchanging.com website, but the tone of this article they’ve recently posted suggests their recent recognition of the potential in virtual worlds and their economies. Of particular interest to me however was the comment that reputation is a crucial element of these online activities; and that a positive reputation carries forward and sometimes outward into the real world. Sounds alot like some comments I read a couple years ago about Chinese business practices; how even with so few mechanisms in place (China is still communist after all) Chinese businessmen managed to do just fine using the best and oldest tools available: reputation and word-of-mouth.

I was glad to read that about “reputation” and to be reminded of that Chinese article. It’s a short read with plenty of links. Might be worth your time if you’re still new to the whole virtual thang.

Second Life, Croquet, and the Next SL Future Salon

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CAD inside Croquet

Since Sunday’s are always kind of slow, thought I’d post a link to this announcement over on the Second Life Future Salon blog today instead of during the week (I figure niche news lasts longer). The post concerns the scheduled appearance of Dr. Julian Lombardi, one of the people behind the open source vr project Croquet, at the May 26 SL Future Salon meeting within Second Life. I’m especially interested in what he has to say since Croquet is, in my opinion, ripe for some serious use in the near future. It’s not only open source, but the inclusion of CAD tools within it is even more exciting for those of use that use CAD in our daily lives.

For those who don’t have a Second Life account, I’ve been told that the meeting will be webcast live from within the simulation (maybe). News of that should be posted on the SLFS blogsite before the meeting. If you do watch the virtual meeting, look for me. I’ll be in the back row.