Monthly Archives: March 2005

Am I On A “Lost” Episode Or What?

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I was reading an interesting interview with Natalie Jeremijenko and was, as a drawn-out consequence, thinking about the need for a rapid prototyping device that actually replicates itself. In this way, where it’s needed most – in under-developed regions – there is less likelihood of the technology being misappropriated by those with less-than-charitable intentions. Okay… in theory. And perhaps a little too pie-in-the-sky. But one quick hop over to New Scientist and I find a brand new article discussing this very same idea. And what’s more, Dr. Adrian Bowyer intends to make the “RepRap” open source. Awesome.

Now, couple this to some cool fuel cell technology whose by-product is potable water, and you’ve got yourself something of worth to the developing world it seems (as well to a few of us with additional ideas in mind).

Well this couldn’t have come at a better time. Earlier today I was hunting up new RP sites and reviewing old ones with little success. I did find a relatively new forum over at http://www.rapidprototyping.net and registered. And I even checked out Terry Wohler’s site (didn’t appear to have much new content since my last visit a few months back). Seems I have some additional googling to do though. No doubt people will be discussing the RepRap project. Just hope all my hits aren’t me out on the net going on and on about the article. Now what do I wish for next…

Influencers and This Designer

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I’ve been spending alot of time utilizing Yahoo Music to feed my aural appetite. For what it’s worth I’m currently labeled a “Fanatic”, having rated a total of 2,408 items (songs, albums, artists) over about two months (the marketers/trend watchers/statisticians/etc at Yahoo doubtlessly love me). What I haven’t done is made “My Station” public. At first I thought,”Hey, why bother? I don’t use this email address they gave me (as part of my ISP account) so no one will be able to give me feedback anyway; and I won’t use it because getting email from strangers doesn’t seem particularly prudent when the net is incubating newer and nastier viruses by the nanosecond.” Now there’s some logic to this position. Except it’s a pointless point. If I don’t read the email people might send me, there’s obviously no danger. So why is My Station still private?

I suspect it has to do with a little feature Yahoo has which they call “Influencer”. Here’s Yahoo’s definition of “Influencer”:

An Influencer is another LAUNCHcast user that you select to influence the music played on your station. When you select an Influencer, songs he/she rates highly will be more likely to play on your station.

Now on the “My Station” webpage there’s this big squarish block labeled with a tab declaring “MY MUSIC INFLUENCE”. Inside it (in bold) are the declarations “I’m influenced by:” and “I influence:”. As a person who, by occupational definition, is an “Influencer”, this feature is a bit unnerving. No, I’m not a music critic; I design products. But my ego makes me reluctant to readily admit being influenced by just anyone (“Hey, I’m a designer!”) and even more hesitant to face the possibility that I influence no one (“Hey, where’s all the glowing email I should be getting?!”). This can’t be a healthy attitude. And although I read online comments about the products I’ve designed, I wonder how much I listen. Something I need to consider. If I react this way about music, how open am I to design criticism? Maybe not as much as I think.

A Second Look at Second Life

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screenshot from Second Life

Since this blog only went “live” yesterday (I’d disabled it’s pingback features until then) I was surprised to see someone outside my small circle of mostly disinterested acquaintances had stopped in to visit. Curious to know who, I paid Setpoint Originator a visit. It appears we have some things in common. More importantly, I noticed the two previous entries concerned Second Life, and so decided to pay a long overdue visit to its homepage and some other related sites. The one that really struck me was this blog entry over on Wonderland. The “Virtual Hallucinations” example reinforces my previous thoughts on Molyneux’s “The Room” experiment in that there are surprising (and perhaps startling) ways to use this technology, and makes me wonder if something similar couldn’t be coded into SL… perhaps the ability to create enclosed environments wherein more dramatic experimentation can take place. Just a thought. But of actually greater interest to me now are some of the virtual economic and social issues transpiring there. Worth a third look…tomorrow after a good night’s rest.

Economic Unrealities: XBox 2 Market Likely a Walled Garden

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Polycount pointed me to this article over on GamesIndustry.biz that puts a damper on my enthusiasm regarding Xbox’s proposed Marketplace and Micro-payment features. While admittedly speculative, the possibility exists that Xbox 2 will harbor a closed economy for “modders”. That’s not to say it can’t and won’t be circumvented, but I’d personally hoped MS would embrace the possibilities of a more open virtual [game] world in a manner not too different from how Valve has handled Half-Life conversions and now supports new community efforts via Steam. Given some other pieces to the Gates Empire puzzle that I’ve collected over the years, and the assumption people in Redmond aren’t entirely unaware of how the Soviet Union’s stifling economic policies effectively lost them the Cold War, there’s still a possibility something more ambitious will be announced. So until we hear specifics, let’s leave it at that.