Last Saturday during his last likely visit to Linden Lab (as a Linden at least), the avatar known as Babbage Linden took his longboard up Lombard Street, and rode it down. Now Lombard is famous for being a street with sharp twists and turns and a very bumpy path (which come to think of it, in that regard isn't unlike the future of Second Life), but Babbage rode down anyway, without even his steampunk robot arm to break his fall.
Later we talked about his place at Linden Lab, and what Babbage would do next. Come September, his last month with the company, he will only be known by his original name, which is Jim Purbrick, and Linden will have to do without his coding skills. (Some samples: a Twitter OAuth code for Second Life, Mono integration.) Jim was based in the Brighton, England office, which was shut down during June's giant layoffs. However, as he told me after his wild ride, we will see many more projects from Jim Purbrick, some possibly related to Second Life, others Second Life in spirit, all of them definitely cool. So be sure to follow to him, and expect to see the spirit of Babbage ride again.
(Pictured: Not Lombard, that was a previous, un-photographed, ride, but the street over.)
Cheers to Jim. I had the pleasure of meeting him in person twice: brilliant, very friendly, and consummate gentleman. Twisted genius is my favorite variety.
Posted by: FlipperPA Peregrine | Monday, August 02, 2010 at 01:45 PM
Holy resemblances!
Former Babbage Linden looks like he could be Bill Paxton's twin brother or stunt double.
Bill Paxton starred in one of the best movies of all time. The name of the movie is called The Vagrant. He's NOT home alone:
http://cdn2.ioffer.com/img/item/126/796/875/o_tAMJrHjD3uWuO5R.jpg
Posted by: Little Lost Linden | Monday, August 02, 2010 at 08:24 PM
Game over man, GAME OVER!
Posted by: Hamlet Au | Tuesday, August 03, 2010 at 10:49 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsx2vdn7gpY
Posted by: Little Lost Linden | Tuesday, August 03, 2010 at 05:35 PM