Category Archives: reTransmit

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

Wired: Second Life Lessons

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Here’s a short but interesting write-up over on Wired regarding Second Life and the sometimes unexpected (but uplifting) uses to which the application is put. Having a virtual neighbor involved in one such activity has also raised my awareness of these kinds of possibilities (beyond the press clippings I’d previously read). In a world where people can don any visible appearance and change it at will, coming to terms with how I form judgements on even those obvious (mis)representations has been enlightening.

And kudo’s to Gwyneth Llewelyn, who is both mentioned in the article and whose blog – along with the news reports regarding Tringo – finally got me involved in this virtual community.

(p.s. Wired does realize they’re quoting a virtual persona, right?)

PolyBot Politics

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pic no worky

When Jeff Goldblum starts explaining insect politics to his love interest during Cronenberg‘s remake of “The Fly“, I visualized this mass of insects swarming over something dead, but somehow communicating and politicking – a hive mind. Creepy thought. That thought returned to me upon seeing this site. Watch the Tricycle demo and also the “Reconfiguration” video. Now imagine tiny polybots… working together… reconfiguring… creepy creepy creepy. Maybe I should have recalled the scene in “Prince of Darkness” where the dead body is animated by insects and talks to the researchers. Brrrrrrrr.

What does this have to do with my blog’s current focus? Nothing. Just creeped me out.

SL Product Design

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Not actually the first design I’ve created in Second Life. I’ve already constructed a monopod vehicle (that requires some additional code to limit rotations to prevent it from “shoveling”), a hoverpod (that’s sluggish in the turn), and eye glasses that play streaming video (cool, but only a test). And this. It’s actually the second in-world vendor terminal I’ve modeled. The first, unfortunately, had “copy/modify” permissions improperly set (ok, I’m a noob), and as a result may now be in use somewhere in Second Life without my knowledge. It was intended for a virtual world competition, but given its possible… likely… emancipation, I opted to design a second one – the above. That object was entered and soundly defeated (so much for my ego). However, it marks a turning point in my second life, so I decided to document that here. And apart from it’s magical ability to defy gravity, I’d like to see a kiosk like this in real life (it looks better in-world. honest.)

Intersecting Overlapping Expanding Improving

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Augmented reality, overlaying three dimensional virtual objects onto our “real world”, continues to be a frequent topic on the sites I visit – including this one over on Setpoint Originator (which I may have mentioned earlier). And yesterday Bruce Sterling posted a link to an AR demonstration video over on MIT’s website. Cool. But fair warning if you’re on a slow connection, the MIT webpage has the Quicktime video embedded so you’re going to get hit with streaming video the minute you get there. Watch it here.

Sin City

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As a longtime Frank Miller fan, I’ve been following the film adaption of his Sin City comic series with interest, and today Wired has a nice write up on it including some behind-the-scenes details involving everything from white blood f/x to blue-blood film clubs (in this case, the DGA).

The soon-to-be-released film is interesting on multiple levels:

– aesthetics could have a wide-ranging impact in multiple disciplines (similarly to how Miller’s Dark Knight Returns comics obviously influenced Tim Burton’s design of the early Batman movies… which themselves influenced IDers and real products in other ways).

– the digital technology Rodriguez is using not only solves artistic issues in bringing this difficult piece to the big screen, it’s at the core of what scares the entrenched studios so badly: losing control.

– the business dealings surrounding how the movie is being made and financed (typically anti-establishment Rodriguez) is indicative of perhaps a larger trend: artists wresting control of their creations from corporate handlers (who seem to think, as has been documented in Terry Gilliam’s battle over “Brazil”, they can improve upon a work by making their own inexperienced and unqualified edits and modifications).

Sin City, the movie, could mark a significant milestone for content creators of all types. For a peek at the trailer, you can find it here.