A Chainlink Fence Still Has Holes

Posted on 9/28/2005 by csven

Wells Fargo Stagecoach Island

I just came across an entry over on Clickable Culture that I fully expected to be reading… if not quite so soon. Read the news here. And I’ll just paste in the comment I made over there:

having come across the backdoor on the forums, i assumed LL was allowing residents to take a peek… or something (since the thread was rather long and still open). so i took a peek. and i mostly did so because while my curiousity level wasn’t too high initially, it has been recently piqued by search engine queries sending people looking for “Second+Life+Wells+Fargo+ Stagecoach+crack+password” to my blog.

so much for protected (cyber)spaces. ha.

Oh well, at least I got a few snapshots before the door got bolted closed. I suppose serious code jockeys looking for work might want to keep an eye on the Linden Lab employment page; especially those will backgrounds in security.

{Edit: it appears it’s not quite as bad as Clickable Culture lets on. From the referenced entry:

An obfuscated back door to Stagecoach Island was recently opened by a handful of Second Life residents who quickly found a number of bugs, exploits, and similar glitches–the most serious of which, perhaps, is the ability to transfer items between the Main Grid and Stagecoach Island.

Having read comments from those involved in the project, this appears to have been a kind of beta test – which explains the endorsement of the Lindens when this “back door” was brought to the community’s attention.

However, the beta has revealed some potential issues as reported by CC. But then that’s what a beta is for. That doesn’t mean my expectation for a cracked client won’t go unrealized. I hope it doesn’t happen, but the ease with which the client was recently hacked doesn’t fill me with confidence.}

MirrorMask

Posted on 9/27/2005 by csven

MirrorMask wallpaper

I’ve been an admirer of Dave McKean’s work for quite a long time now. And it’s been a long time (15 years!) since I met him; back when few people knew of his work and the auditorium in which he gave his presentation was empty save for a few of us lucky enough to have an opportunity to sit down in the auditorium seats with him afterward and converse directly.

In the time since, I’ve continued to be impressed with his work. There was a method to his madness that escaped his contemporaries. Before texture and found object manipulation once again became a big deal (around the time the movie “Se7en” was released), McKean owned pretty much everyone out there. When graphics and illustration was vector-like, and Mac icon-influenced design was gagging everyone in the late 80’s, Dave McKean’s illustrations were a breath of fresh air. Compared to the rest, his illustrations were alive… unlike much of the sterile work so much in vogue. His work breached the limitations of the graphics/illustration discipline and spread beyond it, and I don’t doubt for a moment he had a significant impact on people like David Carson. Or Tim Burton.

A few years ago I recall seeing some of his short animations over on the ResFest site. Snips only. There was a Myst-like quality to them (although I suspect the influence began with McKean’s work). I never saw a completed film of his, unfortunately. But it appears I may now get a chance. MirrorMask is a new movie directed by Dave McKean and scripted by long-time collaborator Neil Gaiman. And it looks great. There are some short but good interviews with McKean here and Gaiman here. But mainly I highly recommend taking a look at the MirrorMask website and previewing the film. If it doesn’t get your creative influences going, see a doctor. Here’s a few screencaps to whet your appetite:
MirrorMask screencaptures

{Edit 29 Sep: Wired now has an interview with Dave McKean which you can read here}

No Sooner Than…

Posted on 9/26/2005 by csven

…I post my entry below on Chris Anderson’s slideshow and he’s posted a follow-up entry regarding it. But this one entry reiterates a quote from his talk that I especially like: “millions of markets of dozens“. I like that. Sounds like a donut franchise, but with the muscle (or at least former muscle) of a Krispy Kreme behemoth.

Do Not Translate

Posted on 9/26/2005 by csven

It appears long time industrial design advocate Bruce Nussbaum is going to be blogging. I’d post this over on Core, but there’s some kind of relationship forming between BW and Core so I’ll not interject. Besides, I’m on record as effectively saying Nussbaum sounds repetitive to me. But hey, even a broken clock is correct twice a day. And I certainly hope he’s right this time about the role of ID. But I also hope he has something new to say that solidifies those convictions and provides indisputable, abundant evidence of their validity. The last time ID was coming into its own corporations decided cheap goods from Asia trumped good design. So anyway, read along with me. Here’s the link.

–

Oh geeze. On first look it appears he’s jumping on the Claudia Kotchka bandwagon. Not a good sign to me given my previous issue with what I believe to be corporate hype (documented here) .

And he’s only now posting entries on the importance of Blogging (my mention of BW’s mention months ago – which was itself way overdue) and Storytelling (my post on the implications of Seth Godin’s entry on storytelling way back in May)?

This doesn’t bode well.

On Rebound and reTail

Posted on 9/26/2005 by csven

rebound book-handbag

I’m always surprised to see “re” in the names of businesses that fit the niche end of Anderson’s “Long Tail”. Yet they pop up everywhere. And when I find them it feels like a vindication for picking the name I did; reBang is really about remaking everything – from remaking/redesigning our world in cyberspace, to how that virtual world opens a feedback loop to the real world and influences it, and to how everything changes as a result (when I first came up with the name years ago I even did logo treatments that represented different industries/activities – hence the current underlined “B”; you’ll see what I mean soon enough). It’s very much a Long Tail kinda thought process – or more accurately, in line with the ecoToroid process I worked out.

Anyway, the above is an image from rebound design‘s books-to-bags collection. I love the idea. Perhaps because I have an affinity for old books (yes, even text books). And the business model – and especially this “Economy” bag – fits in well with this next bit.

While looking over del.icio.us last night, I luckily happened across someone entering a link to a slideshow given by Chris Anderson. You can watch his presentation here: link. What struck me was this slide:

Long Tail Forces

Wow. That looks a whole lot like the ecoToroid I’d worked out and have been talking about (see an earlier entry – reLink). I’ve been informed Anderson is aware of my work and I’m now curious if anything I’ve done has had an impact on his thinking (doubt it).

In any event, now I’d like to get Anderson to go 3D; and to discuss/consider market forces that propel a product to greater sales and distribution without additional Originator energy. To show what happens over Time.