I’ve been visiting the newly-independent-from-Linden Lab blog of Hamlet Au (formerly Hamlet Linden) to see if some of the issues I’ve discussed (OGLE and trademark violations) will finally get some real attention. Nothing so far. But I did find his entry, “Unimpeachable Offense”, interesting. The comments as well.

The post concerns the efforts of at least one resident of Second Life to plunk a sign on some virtual land, put the land up for sale at extortionist prices, and then wait for outraged people to fork over the dough. Rinse and repeat. A lot. Oh, it helps to know that the sign read “Support Our Troops: Impeach Bush”.

I, of course, saw many of the forum threads that sprouted in anger, including one in which a resident posted a conversation hoping to garner (my) sympathy. Only the angry resident sounded like a jerk and the “extortionist” sounded polite and level-headed. I couldn’t help but side with him.

Besides, I knew that in the end the best way to deal with the situation was to ignore it. Funny how so many people haven’t figured that one out. Including Hamlet. From the post (Link):

For what would happen if Profane’s signs had said instead, for example, “Buy Cialis on the Web!” or “Eat at McDonalds!”, or any number of other real world advertisements or statements that most Residents would consider noxious 3D Spam? Surely the same thing: a flurry of outrage, scattershot protest, and after the initial storm, nothing.

Early on, I had thought that Residents would resist the intrusion of real life ads and other forms of commerce into Second Life, collectively rising up against any intrusion that impeded the purity of their grass roots imagination. But considering the story of Jedidiah Profane, I now think that was naive.

Well, it looks like Hamlet really has left virtual utopia. But props to Linden Lab for considering the long-term implications of this issue. In the end, it’s all of us who control what we see and hear … sometimes by simply not acknowledging its existence. Advertising included.

Now if only Linden Lab was as far-sighted with regard to issues of trademark violation. By the way, I wonder how many “Impeach Bush” sign protesters are doing the exact same thing by using real trademarks on their virtual products. Sometimes hypocrisy works too (in the short term at least).

There’s a nice article over on Wired discussing body modification. From an industrial designer’s perspective, the discussion is an interesting one. From the article (Link):

Even if Haeck were inclined to install devil horns on a patient’s head, he wouldn’t be allowed to under the rules of his profession: Modifying the body toward societal ideals is considered ethical, but any modification away from those ideals is unethical and comes with potentially stiff penalties.

That frustrates Haworth and Vidra. “The American Medical Association says you can’t modify the body away from what society says is normal,” says Haworth. But what society deems normal changes.

I wonder if the medical profession has similar “ideals” regarding abnormal anti-aging technologies or RFID implants or implants that somehow improve human performance without changing outward appearance? There certainly doesn’t appear to be any shortage of physicians willing to supply professional athletes with drugs that enhance performance (with side effects, of course).

Last I checked, steroids modify a body. But I guess huge biceps are ideal and well worth the dangerous change in a user’s behavior. I guess the medical community thinks aggression is okay too.

I often discuss “convergence” on this blog but I don’t often explore how far that goes. Seems to me the medical community is having it’s own run in with the concept.

So at what point will technological advancement force them to review their ethical guidelines and update them so they can deal with what’s to come? If they’re not prepared for these simple changes to our bodies, they can’t be ready now. Then again, when it comes down to it, will those ethics make any real difference? I doubt it. Chiba City, here we come.

While surfsearching for information about a Maya Mel script I’d seen in action years ago, I happened across a nice polygon modeling timelapse video on anotherhell.com which some of you who visit this blog might find interesting. There’s no audio. Just polygons being manipulated into the shape of a boot. Fun to watch.

The video is available for download in the tutorial section of the site (Link) and is a .rar compressed file, so you’ll need to have something like WinRAR to decompress it.

Be sure to check out the rest of the site as well. You’ll see the rendered boot as well as some nice character models.

If only everything were modeled using polys and subD’s.

{Image Copyright © 2002 – 2005 John Iysun Raho}

Via Clickable Culture comes word that Microsoft has patented something having to do with in-game spectating. From Tony’s post (Link):

Microsoft has just scored its 5,000th patent in the U.S., covering “technologies that allow people to not just play video games against each other online, but to join the game as a spectator from anywhere in the world,” according to an official announcement yesterday.

As I mentioned in a comment, I think this is related to some emerging forms of digital entertainment similar to what I recently suggested we might see in the near future (Link).

When I have time, I’ll try to find the patent and give it a read. Unfortunately, that might take a few days. However, I have to remember to continue posting any ideas I have to ensure that I do my part in keeping the obvious stuff from being locked up by deep-pocketed corporations.

Nice little article over on C|Net discussing how fans of television shows are using onling mapping tools to document places/events/whatever tied to their favorite show. From the article (Link):

It is surprising that more studios and broadcast networks looking for ways to increase viewership haven’t caught on to the mashup rage, which seems a near perfect marriage of content and interactivity for an entertainment hungry public.

This popped up on my radar a couple of weeks ago when HBO used online maps in conjunction with the return of the hit series “The Sopranos” (Link). But as I mentioned then, I’m looking for this to be used – in 3D – with Google Earth. I’ve not checked all the ones mentioned in this article. Maybe one of them…