While I’ve been too occupied to post any entries this past week, I’ve not been ignoring the news. Truth is, I’ve not found very much of interest. One thing I did find notable was Linden Lab adding the first het grid components to Second Life last week, but the coverage seemed sparse. I can only guess that most bloggers don’t share my thoughts about what it means for Second Life and social networking in general. I’ll get back to that in a moment.

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Between stories of the latest multi-core processor and miniature military drones, there’s usually not much talk of technology making its way into the more mundane items found in the average Western home. Usually the high tech excitement is focused around televisions or videogame consoles; it’s been a while since I’ve seen a reporter use the phrase “smart appliance” in a news story. But C|Net has some nice coverage (Link) of iRobot’s new & improved Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner that certainly fits that description. Worth a read, and there’s also an associated video (Link).
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A few days back additional details were revealed about Sony’s new “Home” virtual world. Since then I’ve been trading comments over on Raph Koster’s blog (Link); some of which might be of interest. Most comments specifically address this item:

Opportunity for revenue sharing with users to encourage placement of advertising within their spaces

I’ll cull a few key points from those comments and post them here, but for the full exchange head over to Raph’s.

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From CNN’s article, “The masters of (virtual) destruction” (Link):

This is no videogame. The modified AK-47 sounds and kicks just like the one I fired 16 years ago on a press junket with India’s Eastern Air Command. But unlike on that occasion, when nobody explained why I missed my target — a bottle of local cola called Thums Up — the Zen simulator is both gun and instructor.
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My second shot is way off target. A laser beam sent to the simulator’s computer displays the movement of my gun and the trajectory of my virtual bullet, showing me why I’m off the mark. Anticipating the unpleasant recoil, I have flinched and sent my bullet over the target.
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When Zen’s founders lugged their new toy around the country, many prospective customers didn’t know what a simulator was. “Some people thought we meant ‘stimulator,'” Atluri says. “We felt like we were in the adult novelty business.”

If only.

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For reference: The Kirkyan Weapon

Via the Business Communicators of Second Life blog, comes word of Cisco’s new corporate Virtual World Blog (Link). From the first entry:

We believe that these environments offer an excellent new tool in our collaboration toolbox, alongside established technologies like IP Telephony, Web Collaboration, and Telepresence.

This is kinda interesting, especially considering Christian Renaud, Cisco’s point man on virtual world technology, took the time to head off not speculative, but potentially speculative comments made on the Croquet 2 Play blog (Link); and did so by posting an entry (Link) for just that purpose. Sensitive.

But let’s face it, being a catalyst for increased network traffic makes a lot of sense if you’re Cisco. So maybe I was right. Maybe Cisco is thinking about acquiring Qwaq (reLink). And they might then pull a Sketch-Up.

“Cisco Unified Virtual World Manager”. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?