I’ve always wanted to design a microphone that looked like some of the ones from the mid-twentieth century. I once did some consulting work designing headmounted microphones for Audio-Technica, but those plastic things can’t compare to an old, cast metal part like those in the above image which I found over on Lost Found Art (Link). There’s other cool images on the site (does everyone have an old toy raygun collection but me?), but that one is my favorite.

via boing boing

{Image Copyright © 2006 LOST FOUND ART, LLC}

Not much time to blog lately, but wanted to post links to some articles on all the recent activity surrounding virtual spaces as real opportunities for a number of endeavors. The first one is a story on Wired “The Game Within the Game” (Link) penned by Clive Thompson and talking about the virtual-virtual and now virtual-real videogame Tringo. I’m partial to the game. Not so much because I enjoy it, but because it was the news about it in the Wall Street Journal last year that kickstarted my involvement in Second Life. You can try Tringo online at the Donnerwood Media site (Link), but it really is more fun as a competitive event inside Second Life.

Next up is a Reuters piece, “Net nightclubs, virtual venues generate real dollars” (Link), that I found via Blue’s News. It covers some of the stories about which I’ve previously blogged, but mostly the article is about the PCD Lounge (reLink). Interesting how PCD has gotten so much press for what seems so little.

Lastly, C|Net has an article titled “Getting more advertisers in the game” (Link) that’s more a generic piece than anything. Not a whole lot to read, but a nice follow up to the previous articles.

I very recently posted this comment over on the 3pointD blog (Link):

I’m waiting for aircraft structural components that look like bird bones whose cross-sections are both beautiful and amazingly efficient. Those could only be “grown”.

I’ve been interested in bird bones for a long time; ever since seeing a microscopic photograph of a its interior structure. So I was pleasantly surprised to see these Bone Lamps over on the Inhabitat blog (Link). They’re a long way from being rapid manufactured, but they’re still nice.

{Image source: Inhabitat}

A bit late, but wanted to get something posted about an article in Adweek titled “Virtual Worlds Let Advertisers Mingle” (Link). It’s not a bad piece – mentioning the usual suspects and adding a couple of things of which I was unaware. Worth a read.

The usual suspects are of course Second Life coupled with both Wells Fargo for their “Stagecoach Island” effort (which I followed closely – reLink) and the BBC for their recent Radio 1 event (something I checked out but didn’t think worth a post since it was all over the net).

The article also mentions the PCD Lounge which I checked out a couple of weeks ago (reLink). Adweek clarifies that Interscope is behind the effort as I suspected. No real surprise since the Interscope logos inside the club (by the music listening stations) had me thinking they were, but other reports credit the band and not the label.

The big thing of which I was unaware was the Adidas “Impossible Team Online” effort (Link). I’ll need to find time to check that out. Plus, I like the comment associated with their mention:

“The challenge here is, if they’re interacting in less traditional ways, we have to evolve the ways we engage with consumers,” said Sabrina Cheung, an Adidas rep.

I do wish Adweek would have gotten the Wells Fargo parts correct though. There’s no mention of the move from Second Life to Active Worlds (reLink). That omission leads to some incorrect conclusions when reading the article. I seriously doubt that virtual birthday party Adweek mentions happened in SL. If it did, someone please correct me.

A few days ago I happened across a mention of Andrew Schulman’s cool found-object lights (Link) and wanted to find a few minutes to browse his site. Well, now that I’m back up after some storms rumbled through knocking out power, I thought I’d take a peek before I got back to work. Glad I did. It reminds me of the reasons why I put time into creative endeavors.

via boing boing (I think)

{Image Copyright © 2006 Afterglow, LLC}