Big surprise yesterday. Normally I’m flooded with visits from zombie PC’s attempting to post trackback spam, but last night while reviewing the log, I realized there were no visits from these guys. All the probes containing spam “referal” sites simply vanished yesterday… after months of fruitless attempts to have their say (I went back some time ago and modified the settings on each blog entry to turn off both comments and trackbacks – I now leave them on temporarily for a day or two).

So did the Zombie Master update his Attack List? Did the Feds take down the operation? Or did the splog zombies finally get a day off? Whatever happened, I’m happy.

After the virtual nuke that hit Second Life last night it was easy to connect the dots for something we might want to expect shortly down the road: EM Griefing (EM = electromagnetic). That incident was the first dot. In this case, the second dot is this report I just read over on JoyStiq that Microsoft’s new XBox 360 console may be causing Wal*Mart’s internal wireless system to bork. This vulnerability isn’t new, but now it’s waaaay out in the open in perhaps the worst way. Considering the buzz surrounding Robert Greenwald’s new movie “Wal*Mart – The High Cost of Low Price” (another “dot” perhaps), I’m going to venture that we’re going to see some real world griefing real soon. One doesn’t have to be too creative to suddenly realize that if you have a beef with the world’s biggest company (or even if you don’t), all you have to do is send them some 2.4GHz love and watch the fallout.

I think we’re about to see some virtual world behavior make it’s way back into the real world. Be on the lookout for people organizing via social websites and forming “Grief Clans” in their communities. Imagine such a clan infiltrating a Wal*Mart with personal electronics intended to screw up their wireless system. Stay tuned… just maybe not with a wireless.

{Update: Gamespot reported yesterday afternoon that Wal*Mart is unplugging XBox 360 kiosks due to interference with their wireless inventory system.}

Just a couple of interesting surfing finds from the weekend that I wanted to post… mainly because I surfed through them at the same time and was struck by their similarities. Above is a detail image from one of Chris Garofalo’s nice ceramic pieces that are showcased over on Metropolis.

The image above is a screencap from one of 1st Avenue Machine’s very cool little animations which you can check out on their website. They’re not long, load quickly and are fun to watch (they’re worksafe, too). Enjoy.

{Top Image Copyright © Chris Garofalo; Bottom Image Copyright © 1st Avenue Machines}

This comment made me do a double-take this morning:

The great struggle for respect in society and in the corporate world is over. Design has won. It doesn’t have to sell itself. It does have to prove itself, however.

Wow. Can somebody get Bruce’s announcement out to all the companies who:

a) believe design is 2D graphics
b) believe design is making products prettier
c) believe anyone using CAD is designing
d) believe retail buyers are by default capable designers
e) believe media stars with opinions are automatically good designers
f) believe innovative thinking can be taught to anyone in a few short weeks
g) believe design is great until they find a cheaper way to execute and can undercut the competition without it.

Oh. And please send a telegram to some of my clients as well – there are some battles still raging even though the war is apparently over. I guess that would include companies that:

h) give lip-service to design because they can’t get more costs out of their product and are desperately looking for an advantage over their competition; even if it’s just using the word “design” in their press releases

or

i) like the idea of being designers so much they now bestow the professional identifier – warranted or not – to almost everyone in their organization. Remember the Fast Company “all-design” issue I mentioned previously? The one that included comments like,

If you’re in any business, you’re in the design business. We’re all designers now.

and

…we’ve mapped the essential designer fashion strategy, so that anyone — even Larry in accounting — can look hip, creative, and somehow more interesting…

That’s the kind of thing to which I’m referring.

Seems to me, that a few things have to happen before “victory” can be claimed. And one of those things is that design has to prove itself. So while I might agree with the comments on the awards, I just wish I could agree with some of the supporting remarks. I don’t. As far as I’m concerned, it’s deja vu all over again. Don’t lay down your weapons just yet.

{Edit: I posted a topic on the Core77 design forum to discuss this, so you might want to see what one community has to say.}

I was there last night just prior to it hitting. Unable to log on to Second Life and watching as the forum posts tracking its progress sim by sim piled up in the Hotline. There was plenty of information posted on the attack; sufficient to make it apparent this was nothing all that specular… just a spawning script deliberately unleashed (this isn’t new, and even the Second Life programming Wiki discusses this sort of thing). Consequently, I wasn’t even going to post about it. Why give griefers the satisfaction? None the less, it does appear to be getting what I consider underserved attention (the kind a bawling child frequently demands).

So, why bother posting this entry now? Because if nothing else, this does point out that the chain is only as strong as the weakest (and most immature) link. So until real life consequences come with this behavior, we can expect it to continue. Let’s see if Linden Lab nips this kind of behavior in the bud once and for all; let’s see if they file real world charges and prosecute. Because so long as people write about these things, there will be children crying for attention.