If the open source community is actually being provided for by 1% of the crowd, then the organizers behind the Jahshaka real-time editing community have more than their fair share. I’ve mentioned Jahshaka before when the community was voting on designs for the application’s interface (reLink), and now they’re voting on startup screens (Link). How can this application not be a success with such excellent community support?

This gets me to thinking. When I stop to consider all the different open source projects of which I’m aware, there are usually only one or two exceptional efforts per category. For example, if I were to say “open source 3D”, most 3D people would answer “Blender“. If I were to say “open source 2D imaging”, most people would answer “Gimp“.
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Yesterday I happened across an unfortunate thread on the soon-to-be-closed Second Life forum (Link) that called out what appear to be real life threats on another, SL-related forum (I won’t be posting links and you should understand why after you read more). Here is one threat posted under a thread titled “Kill Kill Dies Bitch!”:

Did MadmaG go to any SLCC’s? I am going to the next one and if I see her I am whooping her ass if I don’t shoot her first!

Anyone else wanna take a “stab” at her while I hold her down?

Read it ….
BITCH!

For those who are unaware, the “SLCC” is a real world event and has gotten sufficiently large to attract media attention. Here’s another implied threat posted by another user (maybe) as a poll titled “How to rape MadamG Zagato?”

How would you prefer to rape her or see her raped?
Take the poll then discuss.

I’d rather not post the options available.
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I often enjoy the Half-Life 2 content people make. And this one is no exception. The video above is a recreation of Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Fallingwater Home” design. Having visited the structure, this looks like a pretty good rendition.

And people wonder why an industrial designer takes an interest in this stuff. Why settle for a model (Link) when you can have both?

For more of what the HL2 engine can do, you might want to check out a video to which I linked last year – Link. When I first saw it I was duly impressed.

via Wonderland

C|Net has picked up on the EVE Intergalactic Bank story I mentioned earlier (reLink) and posted an article, “Cons in the virtual gaming world” (Link). I’m only really posting this because reading the Yale blog or the posts on Terra Nova can be daunting. This article is far easier to digest and might help some people start to get a sense of what the general issues are.

{Update – TenTonHammer has posted a synopsis of an interview with EVE developer CCP (Link). Worth a read just to see how much game currency was scammed; supposedly it’s into six figures.}