New World Notes

WEEKEND OPEN FORUM

Got an SL-based topic you want to talk about, grassroots content/event/project you want to promote, a gripe you want to air, or a bit of praise you want to publicize?  Post them all here, and early Monday, I'll mention noteworthy Comments and discussions in a front page update.

Update, March 19:  Laetizia Coronet wonders about the appeal of Shermerville, the Linden-planned surburb launched to much fanfare in 2005.  (She writes about it in more detail on her own blog.)  It's been awhile since I've heard anything about Shermerville, since SL architecture expert Chip Poutine and I visited, and I reported on a surreal teddy bear-inflected installation erected outside its borders.  But that was nearly two years ago.  Any Shermerville residents want to update us on their neighborhood?

A great escape from Shermerville; New World Notes, November 2005

DEDRIC FINDS SEARCH

... specifically, an SL-based search engine that's apparently capable of locating in-world objects from the Web-- once you place them into the interface:

You tell it to update, and it sends all of your product names as well as the current location to a web server. One thing I found interesting is that it didn’t croak when I threw 125 items in it to update its server.

Fascinating. Dedric Mauriac leads the way to this potentially groundbreaking metaverse API on his blog; info on finding and trying it out here.

STILL SEEKING YOUR VOICE

How broadly do you think voice communication will be adopted, same time next year?  That's my survey which so far has nearly 400 votes.  If you haven't taken it yet, please do so now.  Final tally announced Monday.

YOUR TUBE, YOUR IMAGINATION

After a long absence from SL machinima, avatar auteur Robbie Dingo returns with a decidedly eerie effort.  (Quite different, in other words, from the heart-wrenching shorts, as here and here, that he first made his name with.) 

A much higher quality version, by the way, is viewable here. Created as a favor to promote a Resident author's innovative horror novel, Dingo's video crescendos with a truly cool visual effect.  Watch it first, then read on, to learn how he did it.

THE WORLD FROM MY WINDOW: CALEDON HIGHLANDS

"My first day in SL," Chance Takashi writes me, "was the day the first Caledon sim opened, and I fell in love with the Neo-Victorians and with the steampunk style. I didn't officially live there, though, until the Caledon Highlands came into being."  He goes on to lovingly describe what followed next, in the community of the future past-- in words, and in this witty travelogue movie, appropriately created as if it was made during the Lumiere era.

ALL ABOUT MY AVATAR: KAZUHIRO ARIDIAN

I first saw Kazuhiro Aridian at a corporate car promotion, of all places, where she teleported before me as a dark and metallic blur.  When she fully materialized in all her horrible splendor, my jaw went agape: entirely incongruent on a sunny island shore, Kazuhiro was a human avatar whose whole body had been fused into a multi-function, robot exoskeleton.  (As it turned out, I wasn't the only one who had noticed her.)  Embodied in such an alien form that was so lovingly, almost erotically detailed, there had to be a story behind Aridian-- and the person who made her real. 

So naturally, I wanted to know more.

Rik's Picks for March 14-18

Rik Riel's weekly round-up of upcoming SL events...

On Sunday March 18, Inside This World is holding a Holodeck Expo to showcase their latest holographic offerings, including a new retail holodeck, an interface that allows people to rez scenes by clicking a photo. Proprietor Biscuit Carroll was kind enough to give me a demo of all the cool environments, from a neon nightclub to a lush Oriental spa. (The above images were all taken in the same holodeck.)  Entertainment includes slamcore by OnnaYokai Yamabushi at noon and ambient guitar by AldoManutio Abruzzo at 4PM. At Kenora (Teleport SLURL).

Also coming up this week: creative anachronists, dreams interpreted, French blues, Spanish alt-rock, Aussie acapella, and an extremely well-known horror/thriller writer.  All that and so much more after the jump...

Iris Ophelia's Fashion Top Ten for March

Exclusive to NWN, the elegant fashionista selects (and often models) her favorite fashions for the month

A monthly top ten list of Second Life fashion releases is a daunting task. Think about how many releases come out every day on the New Products forums alone, and how many are released unannounced into the dark, immersive waters of SL consumerism. 100 items a day would be a conservative guess. Multiply that by the 28 days of last month, and account for the usual period of heightened releases surrounding holidays like Valentine’s Day, and you have a very long list to boil down. As they were so hard to pick in the first place, I could never order these items from best to not-so-best. Instead, I’ve chosen to order them alphabetically by store/brand names.

ALL ABOUT MY AVATAR: RAVEN ZELUCO (TSL)

"I'm 17 years old, live in the [Southern US].  This is my avatar, Raven.  I am a Cyborg, a Cyborg Ninja Master to be specific.  The Avatar came about slowly, over about a year of playing off and on.  I just kind of add to it here and there, sometimes re-invent it completely.

Tateru's Monday Reality Mix

Tateru Nino's weekly take on mixed reality...

Up until recently, Telstra was the sole Australian telephone company. It's got some healthy competition these days, but Telstra's one of the big Australian companies, and they don't even know how to do something small. Their foray into Second Life is no exception.

Also this week, a tangible poetry book, founded in Second Life experiences, illustrated in oil paintings made from digital images in Second Life; a novel being progressively written and published in Second Life; a modern dance group (can you get more modern than a performance that can be interacted with in both worlds?); technology to immerse us yet further. All of this two conferences streamed inworld, and a dash of metrics, after the fold.